Whispers in the Dark
by Satashi
Summary: In her senior year in high school, Sakura gets attacked by some people who want to steal her cards. To help the battle, Syaoran flies to Japan and Eriol from England. Now reunited, the group fights once again and old feelings are finally resolved.
1. Your Love is Mine for the Taking

I took one last look over the items spread across my bed before I started to place them in the several duffle bags around me. Several of my favorite shirts, every pair of pants I had, a single spare set of shoes, and other miscellaneous articles of clothing. It was a little hard to believe that all my personal possessions could fit in just a few bags. Then again, the items around me in my room had no real attachment to me other than design. Once the task of packing was completed, although I was sure I was forgetting several important things, I looked at the small orb necklace on my bed. Picking it up, I felt the magical energy flow through me. I put the jewelry around my neck and tuck it securely under my shirt. A servant took the bags for me after I nodded and began hauling them to the private jet that would take me to Japan. Mentally I ran a checklist of the important items I would need to have with me. My childhood cell phone that barely worked, the artifact to summon my sword, major magical items that would no doubt come in handy, and most importantly: my PSP.

**Whispers in the Dark**

**By:**

**Satashi**

Sakura frowned as she skated down the sidewalk. The feeling was back again, this time stronger than before. Once again she was being followed and she didn't appreciate it one bit. Each time she would skate around town until the feeling left her, lest she lead the person to her home. Today, however, it would end. Slowly she increased her speed to double check the seriousness of the pursuer. When the feeling behind her also sped up she nodded lightly to herself and took a sharp turn before skating full force. A faint trace of annoyance was detected behind her as she skated, signaling that the stalker had become aggravated at being discovered. Sakura led the person along the streets until she found a suitable place in the park to come to a stop. As she looked around, she called out to the person following her. "Come out, I know you've been trailing me."

Slowly a figure emerged from behind a tree and walked over to her. Stopping a respectable distance away, he glared at the eighteen year old girl. One large hand reached up to adjust the collar on his Chinese style shirt, probably a move to buy him some time before speaking. "Kinomoto Sakura," he addressed her as he took in her appearance. "It's impressive that you noticed me."

Sakura chewed on her tounge lightly. The person seemed to be honestly impressed with her, despite the fact that to the girl it was obvious as day that she was being stalked. "What do you want?" She answered instead. "If it's money, you chose the wrong person."

"Oh no, money isn't an issue. You have something far more valuable to me." He allowed the girl to ponder the statement a moment before he pointed at her. "I desire the Clow Cards in your possession."

"How do you know about the Clow Cards!?" Sakura exclaimed; shocked at what she had just heard. Up until now she had never received and trouble over owning said cards, not counting the first bit of trouble that she encountered with Eriol all those years back. "And why do you want them?"

"We require them in China," the man replied, confirming Sakura's guess at him being Chinese. "To take control in office we require magical artifacts. The cards are among the highest available, so possessing them would give us great influence."

"So sorry," Sakura turned lightly and prepared to skate away. "But the Clow cards are no more. They were destroyed shortly after I collected them all. The beast of the seal is also gone, as well as the moon judge." It wasn't really a lie, not entirely. The cards were now named after her instead of Clow, and Kerberos was simply Kero now. Yue the moon judge was residing in Yukito peacefully as well. "You'll have to go home empty handed." She slid to the side to go leave.

"I'm afraid I can't accept that answer," The man darted forward to cut off the path of escape. "The board never lies." Pulling out a strange device, he grinned at the shocked look on Sakura's face. "The Lasin board of the Li clan can detect cards and point to them." Just as he said, a blue beam of light shot from the tip to Sakura's side. "Hand over the purse and you won't be hurt."

"How do you have Syaoran's board!?" Sakura skated backwards and gripped the key necklace under her shirt. "So help me if you've hurt him-!"

"His fate was taken care of by someone other than me," He replied, stepping forward. "Now, hand them over!"

Sakura frowned. '_Looks like I'm going to have to defend myself_.' She plucked the necklace as she thought, holding it in her fist. To her call a wand was formed, no more than a foot and a half long. "I don't know how you came across that board, but I want it and I want it now." She reached out with her free hand and growled. "Hand it over and _you_ won't be hurt." Normally she wouldn't be so mean, but if Syaoran had been hurt in any way…

The man darted forward quickly, lashing out his foot in an attack. Sakura slid neatly to the side and blocked a punch thrown at her. The roller blades on her feet aided in her small dance of parries and dodges. After a few more attacks the man reached behind his back and pulled out a sword from a sheath that was covered by his shirt. Lashing it out, he took on a surprised look when he heard the sound of metal on metal. The staff that Sakura had been holding was now a short sword. The girl jumped back and slid on her wheels, holding her new weapon out in front of her. "The sword card," He mused as he inspected it. "But the card alone wouldn't allow a girl such as yourself to parry an attack like that…" He looked at her a little more before taking in a realizing breath. "Ah, you've also employed the Fight card as well. Very clever girl you are, very clever indeed."

"I don't need praise from you," Sakura retorted. "Give me back Syaoran's board."

"I will need it a while longer, I'm afraid." The man took a relax position before reaching into his pocket. "I've confirmed that you possess the cards, so for now my mission is complete. Until we meet again!" A quick motion sent a small round object to the girl before exploding into smoke.

Gasping, Sakura skated away from the dust and looked around frantically. Feeling no presence other than her own, she quickly broke down and fell to her knees. '_What's going on?_' She asked herself, scared. '_What happened to Syaoran?'_ With a shaking hand she reached into her purse and pressed the auto dial on her cell phone.

"We're sorry, the number you are dialing is either disconnected or out of the service area…"

Sakura swallowed and dialed again, getting the same message. A third dial proceeded, this time manually pressing the buttons. As soon as she heard the operator speak again she chocked back a scared sound. Her fingers dialed another number, this time getting a ring tone. After the third ring, a voice came on the other line. "Hello?"

"Eriol!" Sakura almost screamed.

"Sakura-san, what's wrong?" His casual voice turned serious.

"I was just attacked by someone who wants to steal my cards, and he said something about Syaoran's fate, when was the last time you've spoken to him?" The long run on sentence was spoken quickly.

"I haven't heard from him in a month or so," Eriol told her, voice going calm again. "Calm down Sakura-san, who attacked you? Are you okay?"

"I'm scared!" she retorted. "I'm scared about Syaoran, I'm _fine_."

"Did the man give you any clues?"

"He said something about needing the cards for influence in office."

"I see…" Eriol thought a moment. "I'll look into this, have you tried calling Mei-Ling yet?"

Sakura took in a breath, now encouraged again with some hope. "I'll call her now!" Without waiting for an answer she hung up and searched her address book for the girl's cell phone number. Unlike with Eriol the girl answered it before the first ring was even over.

"Syaoran!?"

"It's Sakura," The girl replied, uneasy. "…He's missing isn't he?"

"…Yes." Mei-Ling seemed to be crying. "He was flying to Japan when his plane exploded. Someone planted a bomb on board." Her voice broke as she gave the news. "We've found the plane but there were no bodies. He's out there somewhere, I know!"

"Yeah. I know too. He won't die like that. Not Syaoran." Sakura closed her eyes. "I'll let you go incase he calls. When he does let me know immediately okay?"

"Same to you, Sakura… And be careful okay? Something is going on here and I think you're a target too."

"… Okay. Bye bye." She pushed the button to hang up and opened her eyes again slowly. "Syaoran…" Shakily the girl made it to her feet and idly skated towards her best friend's house. In times like this she could really go for someone to give her a hug.

The minutes passed by as she skated, lost in her own thoughts. So distracted was she that she completely missed the turn needed to get to her destination and she had to backtrack a while to get to it. When she reached the gates she entered in the number for them to open and skated up the long drive way. The doors were opened for her and the butler bowed and informed her that he would retrieve Tomoyo as she took off her skating gear.

"Sakura? Isn't tonight your Karate class?" Tomoyo asked as she walked down the stairs to meet her friend. Looking at her, Tomoyo ran the last few steps and stood in front of her. "What's wrong?"

"Is it that obvious?" Sakura replied, sniffing.

"Bring some tea to my room please." Tomoyo told one of the butlers by them. "Come on Sakura, let's go talk." She took her friend's hand and led her to her bedroom.

* * *

The wheels turned lazily on Sakura's rollerblades as she glided down the sidewalk. It had been three days since she heard the news of Syaoran and nothing new has come up since. The girl closed her eyes and sighed out, deciding to skip school for the day. Although she wouldn't normally do such a thing, the burden on her was starting to take its toll after not sleeping much the past little while. Turning, she skated off the path leading to the high school and instead chose to go to the park.

The area was empty at this time of day, suiting her just fine. Sitting down at a bench she took out an apple from her backpack and took a small bite of it. The girl ate slowly, sharing her breakfast with a few birds that came to visit her. Sakura kept them company, feeling a smile come to her lips again as one perched on her finger. For some reason birds had always liked her. The animal hopped along her hand for a while before suddenly looking off to the side and flying off.

Blinking, Sakura turned her head and looked at what startled her friends. What she saw made her stand up and drift to the side from the momentum. A man stood not too far from her in what looked like a Chinese fighting outfit. He had short spiky blond hair and dark red eyes. "Who are you?" Sakura asked, frowning.

"Xiando Kauta, but you can simply call me Xian if you wish." He smirked at the girl. "Not that it really matters, Sakura, because we won't meet again after today."

"Why are you people doing this…?"

"That is of no concern to you. I have taken care of the only other one that can get in our way, and now I will take care of you."

"Syaoran!? Are you talking about Syaoran!?" Sakura gripped her necklace.

"The boy died in a spectacular blast, I must say. Truly one of the best bombs I had ever made."

Sakura grit her teeth and glared at the ground. Her right hand shook in anger, making it hurt from the pressure of the key within it. "I've never…" She swallowed. "I've never felt like this before…" Her eyes moved up and met his. "I don't like this feeling… I don't like it at all!"

"Oh?" He seemed amused. "The card mistress has never felt the desire for revenge before? Such a weak master of the cards."

"I've never… wanted to hurt… anyone… before now…" She glared harder. '_I don't like this feeling!_' She tried to calm herself down mentally. '_I don't like it!_'

Xian withdrew a sword from a sheath at his side. "His last scream was your name."

"Sword!" Sakura slung a sword out of the air. "Fight!" Her stance shifted instantly into a combat focus. "Dash!" Her body phased out and re-appeared in front of Xian, making him gasp and slash his weapon at her. "Power!" Her blade clashed against his, sending it reverbing away from her. "Windy!" A blast of wind shot Xian backwards after already being off balanced. "Firey!" Flames shot along the wind, making Xian scream out in pain. "Arrow!" Her sword changed into a bow, which she pulled back and aimed. The arrow shot forward quickly, catching Xian in the shoulder. "Through!" The arrow glowed a second before continuing it's path, ripping through the man as if he wasn't there. Xian fell to the ground harshly and gripped his shoulder in pain. Not done, Sakura called out another card, pointing. "Sand!"

Xian felt himself be sucked halfway into the ground and gasped out. "I seem to have underestimated you…" He glared at the girl, who seemed to wobble just a little. "Is what you probably expect me to say?" Jumping up, he freed himself and landed in a fighting stance. "You haven't slept in almost three days now. No matter how strong your magic is, with a weak body you won't be able to fully use it."

Sakura's vision got a little fuzzy, making it hard to block the attack that came at her. The two danced around each other quickly, slashing their weapons as fast as each could while not leaving themselves open. Finally Sakura felt herself be pushed back as the Power card started to fade. Seeing the chance, Xian lashed out his foot and connected into her stomach, sending the petite girl flying and losing the power she had called. Pushing up slowly, Sakura tried hard to remember how to stand properly. '_Too many cards…_' Her mind told her as the ban lunged, sword posed to strike. '_No energy…_' Her eyes watered as she closed them tightly. _'Syaoran!_' The sound of metal on metal came to her ears and she looked up, seeing a man standing in front of her with his arm held out to the side. He was holding a thick sword with one hand that was blocking Xian's double handed attack. Seemingly without any effort the new man slung the blade forward and sent Xian flying back. As he let his arm fall, Sakura started to focus again. He wore a dark green cloak that was tattered in several places, but still managed to cover his body. A hood was attached and was currently covering his head. "Who…?"

"So they sent another to protect the mistress?" Xian asked, taking in the new challenger with his eyes. "What's your name, mercenary?"

"Giving my name to someone like you…" The man began smoothly, "Would only get it dirty." Sakura could almost feel the smirk on his lips.

"Why you!" Xian lunged, throwing his sword out with both hands, only to be deflected again by the man's one handed sword.

"I don't appreciate you hitting Princess," The man spoke calmly, although now with a tint of anger in his voice. "I'll have to pay that back." With a quick flex, the man spun kicked, sending Xian to the side. Pressing his advance, he darted forward and easily danced around the attacks before slashing his own sword and cutting Xian deeply.

"You move like Wolf…" Xian growled, attacking once more but being knocked back in just a few seconds. "Who are you!? One of the people he trained with!? Only royalty fights like that!"

The man didn't say anything, but instead held up his sword and leaned back. The blade went over his head and his other hand outstretched in front of him, guiding the tip of the blade with his finger. The move caused the hood to fall back, revealing brown hair that went into the cloak and goggles around the man's head.

Xian attacked first and Sakura held her breath as the two battled. Standing finally she mentally ran a check over her body. Her magic power was still strong but her body was getting too weak to channel it. She frowned as she looked at the battle. '_I don't know who you are but… The enemy of my enemy…_' She held out her staff. "Power, Dash, Fight!" Her three battle cards appeared before her, only to her eyes. Slashing her wand out the power activated and she lunged into the mix, throwing Xian off enough to be blasted away by a lightning spell from the new man.

While they were apart from their foe, Sakura looked up at the man. His hair was freed from the cloak and blew out behind him in a waist length ponytail. The goggles were over his eyes, but seemed to be a clear green color. She saw a yellow circle trail across the lens and from what she could tell from the man's face, it was planted on her face. Something flashed across the lens in red and she saw small arrows point to the side. The man grabbed her and flashed the cloak around them. Several small clink sounds came and when she was let go she saw several small throwing knives on the ground.

"It's Wolf!" Xian screamed out in disbelief. "Impossible! How could Wolf be here!?" He seemed to be talking into a communication device. "Wolf is in Japan!"

Wolf frowned and pointed, sending a bolt of lightning into the device, shattering it. "I came to protect Princess. If you appear before us again, I'll fry you instead of that device. Now leave. Inform your people that I am here and to back off their plans."

Xian growled angrily, but started to back away. "This isn't over, Wolf. I don't know how you're here but you won't last much longer." With a leap backwards, he slung out a small round object.

Wolf once again shielded Sakura with his cloak. The girl blinked as she was encased in darkness against the man's body. She saw a bright light flare through the tattered holes near the bottom of the cloak a moment before she was released. "A flash bomb," Wolf informed her. "If you look at it you'll be blind for a few minutes."

"Ah, thank you." Sakura looked up at him, seeing the yellow circle follow her as she moved backwards to distance herself from him. "Um… Wolf-san? What's going on?"

"I was sent from China to protect you, Princess." Wolf smiled down at her, as if he was amused by something.

Sakura tried to wrack her memory. She didn't know anyone named 'wolf', nor did she meet anyone by that name the only time she had been to China all those years back. "So, you're from the good section of China?"

"You could say that." Wolf's lips turned up slightly into a smirk. He seemed to be enjoying the conversation.

"Do you… Have any word about Syaoran?" She asked after a moment, fear in her eyes. '_If they send Wolf to protect me…_'

"Yes," he said the word simply.

"…And?"

Reaching up, Wolf removed the goggles from his face and flashed back his cloak so it looked like a cape. Deep brown eyes looked down at her as he reached into his shirt and pulled out a small gold heart locket. "My voice must sound different over the phone, huh Princess?"

"Syao…ran…" Sakura felt her throat go dry. "Syaoran…? Syaoran!" Lunging at him, she enveloped the boy in a hug. "You idiot!" she screamed into his chest, crying. "Why didn't you call me!? Why didn't you let me know you was here!?"

"My cell phone was blown up," He admitted, hugging her softly. "And I don't know your number since you got your new phone and I use auto dial."

"Idiot!" She hit his chest while still hugging him. "I was so worried! So worried…!" She gripped him again and allowed him to stroke her hair before pulling back and looking up at him. "… Welcome back, Syaoran."

"I'm back, Princess." Syaoran smiled down at her. "Sorry I'm a little late."

Sakura felt herself half laugh, half cry. "A few years isn't a little late!"


	2. My love is just waiting

Calling home and informing them that I was alive was a little more complicated than I had originally thought, if just for the reason that Mei-Ling held me on the phone for an hour before passing me to each of my sisters before I could even speak to my mother. Sakura had lead me to a nice place in the park that was nice and quiet and lent me her cell phone for my purpose. She went off somewhere but came back shortly with some drinks which we shared as she waited patiently for me to be finished. When the business was done she asked me all sorts of questions herself about what happened and how I survived a plane crash. I took a long drink of the soda brought to me and looked down at it in appreciation. I had been quite thirsty since I had woken up this morning.

**Whispers in the Dark II**

**By: Satashi**

"The bomb was found a few minutes before it was set to go off," Syaoran explained as he walked along with Sakura. The girl was skating slowly beside him, letting him lead her to the place he was going to be staying. "So after we realized we couldn't disarm it or take it out without blowing it up, we sent a coded distress signal to the people here we were supposed to meet. We bailed out with life rafts and floated for about a day and a half before we were picked up. We had to send a person to China to inform everyone of what was going on because a phone call would be too risky of being intercepted and give away our location. I guess he should be getting to the palace today sometime. Since I already did battle the call I just made isn't really a threat since they know I'm here anyway." He took a breath and let it out slowly. "And there you are, I'm very much alive and well."

Sakura nodded, more to herself. "I'm glad you came, Syaoran."

"Me too." Placing his hands into his pockets, he looked around. "The town hasn't changed that much over the last few years."

"There are a few differences, but I think you'll get around just fine after a week or so. It's not like you didn't spend two years here yourself."

"True. Hey, is that restaurant still open? The one we always went to?"

"McAlisters? Yeah, it's down that way." She pointed her finger and saw Syaoran start walking a little faster. "Hungry much?"

"Starving." Syaoran smirked. "You hungry too?"

Sakura laughed lightly. Not only had she not slept much the past few days but her eating was periodic at best. The apple she had that morning had mostly gone to the birds as well. "I could eat." Her stomach chose that time to growl at her, making the girl flush. "A little… a lot maybe."

Syaoran grinned to himself. Tomoyo had told him that Sakura had been eating a lot since she had been practicing her magic. In fact he was also told that she had started to gain weight and started taking a karate class to help her trim back up. That had been a few years ago, but from the look of her petite frame she apparently still went to the classes. "Let's get some food," He spoke finally. "My treat, what do you say?"

"I'd like that," Sakura skated a little faster to catch up and held onto the side of his arm since the cloak was pulled back to act as a cape at the current moment. "I have to ask, what's with the cloak? And the goggles too?"

Grinning, Syaoran looked down at the girl gliding by him. "They're both magical artifacts I was given before I left. The cloak is made out of a special cloth that is threaded with a type of flexible metal. Remember the old batman movies? Kind of like that."

"And the goggles?" Sakura blinked as she felt Syaoran's arm move from her and soon found the tinted goggles around her head. He tightened them lightly so they would stay and stood to the side, making her stop as well. She heard a small beep and saw tiny red arrows flash at the corner of the lens. Turning in that direction she saw Syaoran standing before her with a yellow circle at his neck where his sword pendant was. The cloak was outlined in a red as well that slowly flashed. After a few moments of looking a screen appeared and scrolled with information that she had to squint to read. "Syaoran," she read aloud. "User of ancient magic, age: 18, Code name: Wolf, Martial arts: Karate, Jujitsu, Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu." She gasped lightly. "Wow! What does it say about me?" She plucked them from her head and handed them back over to him.

Syaoran put the lens over his eyes without actually placing the strap around his head. "Sakura, Card Mistress. Age: 17."

"…That's all?"

"Well that's all the data we have on you. As you're observed, this'll record everything." He took her hand and started to walk again, pulling her along a few moments before she started to skate again. "This looks a little familiar…" He pointed across the street. "That's it, isn't it?"

"Should I be surprised you remembered or just assume you read the sign above it?"

"Busted," Syaoran grinned lamely and scratched the back of his head.

Sakura skated ahead and came to a stop in front of the counter, greeting the cashier and stumbling with a story of why she wasn't in school at the current moment after he asked. When Syaoran came up next to her she smiled and told the person that the boy was a long time friend who was visiting so she skipped school to show him around. "Anyway, Taki-san," She continued. "I want a number four please."

Syaoran looked up at the menu and debated with himself. When he couldn't decide he just smirked. "Give me a special, a number five, and also a number three."

Taki whistled, jotting the order down on a receipt. "You're Sakura's friend all right."

"Hey!" Sakura blushed lightly.

"You're not getting anything else?" Syaoran asked, confused. After a battle in the past the two would always scarf down as much food as they could get their hands on to recover their magical power used. If Sakura was already weak and did battle anyway then she would surely be starving.

"Um…" Sakura looked down, embarrassed. "I don't want to get too much since you're paying…"

"Oh is that all?" Syaoran looked back at the board. "Then give us a number one as well, some fries as a side, and…. Chili nachos! Loaded!"

"That's more like it!" Taki grinned and wrote it down despite Sakura's flailing and command not to. "Order up Joe!" He called, clipping the receipt and spinning it. "Here or to go?"

"To go," Syaoran replied, putting a hand on Sakura's head to calm her down.

"Make that a lightning order!" Taki added in and made small talk with the pair before handing over the food.

* * *

"So this is it, huh?" Sakura asked as she watched Syaoran fumble with his keys to the door. "For not having a car or anything, you sure do have a lot of keys."

"Different stuff for back home," He mused, finally unlocking the door. "I'd feel weird only having one key on my ring." Pushing open the entrance, he welcomed her. "Here we are, home sweet home."

Sakura walked in and looked around. Syaoran had the penthouse of an apartment complex, paid for in full by his family. Even though the apartment was a lot larger than the average one, it was still very empty at the moment. To her immediate left was a linen closet and to her right after the short walk-in was a living room. In front of her across the room was a bar that separated the kitchen from the main living area. To the left of the kitchen area another small walkway came into view. A bathroom was on the right side of the wall, complete with a huge bathtub. Continuing down the short hallway it opened up into a bedroom that was easily twice, if not more, than Sakura's own. The girl walked to a door a little away from the closet and opened it, realizing that went out to a balcony that was rather large.

Walking back to the living room, Sakura saw her friend plop down on the floor to the right of the kitchen. Upon getting closer to him she noticed that there was a dining room area as well on the other side of the kitchen wall. The area was a little circle-ish and came out from the rest of the room so it could have a half-circle glass wall to look out over the city. "I like it," She told him finally, joining him on the floor.

"I think I'll put a diner table here," he joked as he spread out the food around them. "Good they gave us stuff to eat with; I don't have any silver wear here yet."

"You don't have _anything_ here yet," She corrected him as she started to eat. "Where are all your things?" Sakura ate slowly at first but started to pick up her pace after she realized how hungry she was.

"Somewhere in the ocean I suppose," Syaoran shrugged as he stuffed his face. "Plane blew up, remember?"

"How could I forget?" Sakura glared at him. "I'm still mad you didn't contact me right away."

"Sorry," He took a bite of the nachos and grinned at her. Sakura leaned forward and wiped a little chili from Syaoran's mouth and licked it off her finger. He flushed at the action, making her grin. "You never change, do you?"

"Disappointed?" Sakura felt her cheeks color a little bit. Tomoyo had told her long ago that she flirted a lot around Syaoran, and since then she always enjoyed making the normally serious boy get embarrassed. After not seeing him for a few years and thinking that he might be dead had only made her want to be around him even more.

"Not at all," Syaoran gave her one last quick grin before going back to his food, eating a lot faster. "Man I missed this stuff," He grabbed a few random items and scarfed them down.

"Some table manors," Sakura scolded, although she started to eat a little more as well before he got it all.

"Too many formal dinners," He talked around his food. "It's great just to not care."

"So are you getting anything delivered here or you have to shop?"

"Shop."

"Well we definitely need to get you a bed at least." Sakura drank happily and sighed contently when done. "How much you want to spend?"

"I have a credit card my family gave me so it doesn't really matter since they're rich…" He trailed off after seeing the look in Sakura's eyes. "Uh oh…"

"Shopping trip!"

* * *

Syaoran sighed to himself as he carried the several bags through the clothing store. So far Sakura had dragged him through at least five stores in the mall and forced him into modeling for her. Although he had to admit that he rather liked what she had picked out for him he still felt a little embarrassed at having a girl literally pick out his entire wardrobe. Finally after being shoved into some tight fitting blue jeans and a cowboy shirt and hat Syaoran had to call it quits. Not for the fact the several girls were squealing at him, nor for the fact that he _really_ didn't like the look. It was more for the fact that Sakura was laughing her butt off, having to hold herself up by leaning against the wall.

Changing back into his original cloths he sighed. "Sakura, I think I have enough cloths to last me a while…"

"Hmmm…" She put a finger to her chin and thought about it. "I suppose you're right. We can make a stop back to your apartment and then go looking for some furniture. After that it'll probably be too late to make a full trip to get food… I can probably get Tomoyo to drive us so we can load up her car and-"

"Whoa, Tomoyo has a _car_!?"

"Didn't she tell you?" Sakura tilted her head to the side.

"She can _drive_!?"

"…Yes?"

Syaoran felt a shiver run down his spine. "Oh man…."

"What's wrong…?"

"I just remembered something."

"And that is?" Sakura paused her walking alongside him and turned to look at the boy.

"A bet that if she got a car before me I would let her dress me up in one of her outfits… Please tell me that she dropped that habit?"

"Oh no; No way." Sakura blushed lightly. "She's actually a model now for her mother's cloths. Free-lance, of course, but still." Continuing her path out of the mall she gave him a look. "She makes me model them all as well."

"Still a photo hobbyist?"

"Don't you talk to her?"

"Not as much as I'd like." Syaoran shifted the bags so his arms wouldn't fall asleep on him. Truthfully he thought of the black haired girl as a little sister, something he had always wanted since he only had older ones back home. They had exchanged a few phone calls a month and he got a few scattered packages from her that normally contained a scrap book or a video DVD of her and Sakura doing something.

"Syaoran?"

"Hm?" He looked at her.

"We're kind of home." She nodded over to his apartment door. "Wow, when you get distracted you _really_ get distracted, huh?" Syaoran laughed it off and shifted his bags to pull out his keys, almost dropping them. After another attempt Sakura laughed and got behind him, slipping her hand into his pocket and fished them out. "There, wasn't that a lot easier?"

"Eh, um, yeah…" He looked away, face coloring. The sound of the door being opened came and the two stepped into the apartment. Syaoran dropped the cloths in his bedroom and lay on the floor, looking at the ceiling. A moment later he felt some extra weight on his stomach and noticed that Sakura was lying across from him while using his body as her pillow.

"I'm really glad…" She began after it was silent a moment. "That you're back here, Syaoran."

"Me too," He agreed after a while. "I'm sorry that it's under a bad situation, though."

"It's okay. I don't mind really now that someone is with me. It was just hard being alone and confused. What _is_ going on anyway?"

"Later," he sat up, making her head fall into his lap. "Let's talk about that later. For now let's go get some furniture so we'll have something to actually lie on while we talk?"

Grinning, she looked up at him. "Sounds tasty."

* * *

"So, what do you think?" Syaoran asked, looking down at the girl who was sprawled out in a giant 'X' formation on a bed.

"Wake me in a few hours," she teased, opening her eyes. "This is by far the most comfortable thing I have ever laid on in my life."

"Really?" Syaoran hopped onto the bed and sank back. "Oh wow this is pretty nice."

The sales clerk sighed and tried to hide his embarrassment while looking at the two. The female was in a school uniform, and was obviously skipping classes and the male was dressed like someone who explored ancient ruins in the desert. To top it off they were laying on the newest model of the most expensive bed they offered. "Have you decided?" He asked them, trying to resist the urge to tell the kids to scram and stop wasting his time.

"Sure have," Syaoran sat up and patted the bed. "I want this, do you have a king size?"

The man blinked. "Yes sir?"

"Good. Then I want this, and the bedroom suit that we looked at earlier that my friend liked." He pointed as he talked. "And the living room set, the one with the five pieces, that you showed me first, and also the dining room table that you showed us as well."

"The financing of that would come to several hundred a month, sir."

"Oh no way!" Syaoran looked shocked, making the person helping him sigh out in agrivation. "I want to pay for it all up front," He pulled out his wallet and slipped his credit card. "I can charge it right?"

Sakura laid on her stomach with her feet in the air, watching with an amused look as the person helping them stared blankly at Syaoran. She could tell from the moment they entered that they wasn't being taken seriously and didn't really blame him for it. She had drug Syaoran all across the store several times discussing the choices and although he chose a different living room set than she liked, his other choices matched hers as well. Her phone rang at that moment, catching her attention. A moment later she flipped the bright pink phone open and spoke into it. " 'Allo," She greeted with the phrase she picked up from Kero.

"Sakura! Where are you, you skipped all day long, I was worried!"

"Tomoyo," Sakura smiled as Syaoran started signing papers. "I'm with Syaoran, duh."

"He's okay!?"

"Didn't he call you?" She blinked.

"No! No one did!"

'_Whoops_.' Sakura grimaced to herself. "I'm so sorry! I thought he called you when he called everyone else!"

"Is he okay? He's not hurt is he?"

"He's fine," She spoke into her phone as she rolled off the display bed and skated over to her friend. She had worn the skates all day long and by now was over the embarrassment of not having her other shoes. "Here, you can talk to him." She offered the phone to Syaoran, who took it after giving her a questioning look.

"Syaoran speaking."

"You idiot, why didn't you call me!?" Tomoyo's voice screamed out, catching several people's attention and making the boy's cheeks darken in embarrassment.

"I though Sakura called you," He told her softly as Sakura took his credit card back from the man and scheduled a delivery of their items. "I'm sorry Tomoyo… Um, hi. I'm okay?"

"That's not good enough!" she scolded. "I was really, _really_ worried about you! And poor Sakura was almost crying!"

"Hey, I'm sorry. Really." He paused, letting the girl catch her breath. She seemed pretty upset at the moment. "Hey, come over why don't you? I'll treat you and Sakura to dinner, what do you say?"

"… Okay, I'll be there in a few hours… Where will I be?"

"I'm on the top floor of Crossgates, the apartment complex by the park." He got a nod from Sakura and he waved at the person he bought from with his free hand.

* * *

Sakura waved to the people who had delivered the furniture as they left before closing the door. As she turned around she smiled to herself. Syaoran's apartment looked a little like home now, at least to her. Complete with furniture, the large empty spaces seemed to shrink down to a more comfortable area to be enjoyed. Of course he still needed pictures and stuff but she was fairly sure Tomoyo would be able to take care of that. As she walked past the hallway a buzzing sound caught her attention, making her turn and backtrack a few steps.

The laundry room door was opened and she popped open the front of the dryer and reached in, feeling the soft sheets to make sure they were dry. "Syaoran, your sheets are done!" She called out, hearing him thank her from somewhere in the living room. Sakura scooped them up into her arms and walked to the bedroom, where she started to make the bed that was already set up on the frame and box springs. Five minutes later she was finished and sighed contently to herself.

"You look a little worn out," Syaoran said behind her, making her jump a little.

"Just a little, it's been a long few days." Sakura looked up at him and smiled, still pleased at him being back in Japan. "Hey, you mind if I take a shower? I could really use one right about now."

"Did you already wash my towels and stuff?" He asked amazed, getting a nod. "Oh wow, that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, feel free." The boy walked over to his closet and opened it up, grinning lightly to himself at the cloths already washed and hung up. Plucking one from a hanger, he tossed it over to her. "Something to change into."

"Should I prance around in my panties or do I get pants too?" She teased, quickly getting a pair of sweat pants tossed at her as well. "Thank you, this'll do nicely." Sakura stuck out her tongue at him and proceeded to the bathroom. Pausing at the door she turned and looked back at him. "You can peek if you want to."

"I'm a healthy teenager, if you tell me that, I'll probably do it."

"Then you'd get to hear my cute little screams," Sakura giggled at him before finally walking into the room, pleased at his embarrassed face.

A good half hour later Syaoran heard a knocking at the door and was greeted with an armful of a raven haired girl when the door was opened. The boy paused a moment to realize that Tomoyo had just hugged him so he returned it, patting her head when she tightened the grip. "Welcome back," She greeted him finally, speaking against his chest.

"Good to be back," He replied lightly with a small smirk. "Missed you."

"You too." She pulled back a little and smiled up at him. "Sakura been clinging to you all day long?" Her reply was cut off by the very same girl she had been talking about when she rounded the corner drying her hair.

"Your water gets really hot, so be sure not to burn yourself when you get in the shower, Syaoran…" She stopped and looked at Tomoyo, who appeared to be in shock. "Tomoyo?"

The girl looked at Sakura, seeing only the fact that she was wet and wearing the male's cloths. "Wow, you work fast don't you Syaoran?"

"Hoe!?"

* * *

It was well into the morning before Tomoyo decided that she had better be getting back home. She made arrangements to meet the two the next day to go shopping and after a long ten minute goodbye conversation at the door she left.

Sakura yawned and stretched out before rubbing one of her eyes. "Oh wow, I'm so tired I can barely stand up."

"How far are you from here, I don't remember exactly where you live?"

"Not too terribly far, I could make it in about ten minutes by skating possibly." She yawned again and looked up at him sleepily. "Can I stay here tonight? I really, really don't want to skate home."

"Your father and brother must already be worried about you?"

"They're gone for a while. Daddy's on some trip with his students and my brother is at college. He and Yukito share a room, remember?"

"Oh yeah," Syaoran recalled that little bit of information and grinned. "Then by all means, you're welcome to stay any time you want to."

"Anytime?"

"Yup!"

"Really?"

"Sure thing." The boy laughed and reached over to his key ring laying on a small table by the door. He fumbled with it for a moment before slipping off a single silver key. "Here, my spare key. Whenever you need to, just make yourself at home."

Blushing, Sakura took the key and looked at it in her hands a moment before letting a smile play onto her lips. "Don't regret it when I take over your T.V., okay?"

Syaoran chuckled to himself and lead the girl to his bedroom, where she crawled under the covers while he raided his closet for something to wear to sleep. "I'm going to take a shower, get some rest okay? I'll sleep on the couch."

"No way, there's plenty of room here Mr. King size bed." Sakura stretched out fully to show just what she meant. "You sleep in your own bed, I'm not going to steal it."

"But…"

"No buts!" She pouted at him. "I don't think you'd do anything to me in my sleep."

"Miss 'you can peek if you want.'"

Sakura closed one eye and gave him a cute look. "If your feet are cold when you come back, don't try and snuggle."

The comment made the boy laugh as he left the room. "It's good to be back."

* * *

Author's Notes: A cute chapter to balance out the next one that'll be a little more action along with romance. Hope you enjoyed. 


	3. To turn your tears to roses

Groaning lightly, I rolled over and pushed myself up in the bed. I blinked my eyes a few times as I tried to remember why I was in a bed that wasn't mine. The answer came when I looked over to the side and saw Syaoran asleep by me. A small smile played on my lips as I watched him breathe steadily and his chest rise up and down slowly. I was asleep by the time he got in bed last night so I was amused to find out that he slept without a shirt on. The sunlight caught my attention as it shined off a small golden locket around his neck. It was a gift that I had given him several years ago, something for him to remember me by. The locket had a small clasp on it and could open up like a book to reveal two pictures. Of course I put one of him and one of me in it back then but I was curious to see what was in it now. Slowly I reached out my hand and touched my fingertips to it, looking for the latch.

**Whispers in the Dark III**

**By: Satashi**

Sakura gave out a small gasp when the boy's hand suddenly jerked up and caught her small wrist. Syaoran opened one eye and grinned as he looked at her. "I thought the guy was supposed to feel the girl's chest while they were asleep, not the other way around?"

Deciding to turn the situation back around on him to get out of the situation, Sakura smile back down at him. "Are you implying that you want to touch my chest?" The words worked and Syaoran had a strange reaction of blushing while his face drained of color at the same time. As much as she wanted to continue her teasing a knock came at the door and caught her attention. "Coming!" She called out from habit before realizing that she wasn't actually in her own bed that morning.

"Making yourself right at home?" Syaoran looked like he was happy about her mistake despite the words.

"You said I could." She stuck out her tongue and crawled out of bed, stretching out as she walked out the door. "Get dressed, that's probably Tomoyo." Sakura scratched her head as she let out a huge yawn. After a quick peek through the hole on the door she noticed that it was indeed Tomoyo so she opened the door. "Morning Tomoyo," she greeted.

"Afternoon, Sakura." She countered with an innocent smile. "You two slept in so late after a fun time last night, assuming?"

"Yeah it was a lot of fun," Sakura grinned, missing the implied meaning behind the words. "I didn't think Syaoran would ever be done so I fell asleep while waiting for him to finish." She was referring to his extra long shower but Tomoyo seemed to be grinning at the boy who had just walked into her line of sight.

"You need to work on your performance, Syaoran."

"…Huh?"

* * *

Syaoran couldn't help but grin to himself as he watched Sakura eat. Already a cleaned plate a food was on the table and the one she was working on now was quickly being depleted as well. Of course he was already ahead of her since he lacked the girl's restraint when it came to eating in a restaurant. Tomoyo was also calmly eating her meal, apparently used to Sakura going on binges. "So," Syaoran began after swallowing. "Here's what's going on. China, along with the rest of the world, is divided among two factions. One is magical and the other isn't."

"Muggles?" Tomoyo asked him, eyes sparkling with playfulness.

"One more Harry Potter pun from you and you're not going to record any of this." He pointed at her with his chopsticks but lips flickered quickly in a brief amused smirk. "Anyway, the two factions. The head of the non-magical one works along-side the magical one and often they get along fairly well. The Magical leader doesn't really have any 'real' power so to say, but more of a huge influence, so although they aren't 'in office' they still have control over what is going on. Understand?"

"Like the Queen of Brittan?" Sakura pondered.

"Exactly!" Syaoran nodded. "She's actually the magical lead over there." Tomoyo made an interested humming sound while Sakura just looked a little surprised she guessed it right so quickly. "Just like her," The boy went on after biting into his food. "The Li clan in China are the magical lead. However the other faction over there doesn't really want to work with us. They want to control us and use our influence on the magical factions to do all sorts of stuff. Control trade, raise taxes and stuff like that."

"That's the reason they're attacking me?" Sakura looked confused. "Over making some money?"

Tomoyo petted the girl on the head. "Sakura, if you control the trade and money flow of your own country and then have the power to control other country's as well, you basically control the world."

"It's _that_ big!?"

"Unfortunetly." Syaoran looked down. "Big enough to attempt to assassinate the son of the biggest politial power in China." The table went quiet a moment before he continued. "The people doing this can't continue unless they have magic of their own. If they control a huge source of magical energy and take over my faction then my alliances will work with them so they won't have a civil war in their country as well. The biggest source of controllable magical energy just happens to be…"

"Sakura Cards." Sakura finished for him, closing her eyes. "They still thought they were under Clow at the time when I was attacked…"

"And since you converted the cards, they became more powerful. I dare say you're the most powerful sorcerer in China and Japan right now, Sakura."

"Hoeee…." She felt her world spin as she used her favorite childhood word. "That's not true! You're a lot more powerful than I am!"

"Combat wise," He partially agreed. "But when it comes down to the pure raw essence of magic, you have more than I could ever hope for. Think about it, your energy spans enough to equally support fifty-two of the most powerful magical artifacts ever made, as well as have enough left over to suit your needs as well. The battery source for all this is so great that you need all the stars in the sky to grant you a little of their energy to maintain yourself."

"And that's why you're so lazy when you don't see the stars for a few days," Tomoyo added in, making her friend blush. "So they want to take the cards from Sakura?"

"The original plan, yes. I don't know for sure if they're aware of Sakura's cards bearing her magical circle yet since she was in combat mode. Have you released your staff against them yet?"

"Not yet, just my star wand…" Sakura looked down and gripped her necklace though her shirt. "Well, this is why I kept practicing magic… just incase something happened."

"Don't worry," Syaoran reached over and placed his hand on top of hers. "I'll protect you no matter what."

"…Syaoran…" The two looked at each other a moment before blinking and turning their heads to look at Tomoyo who had a digital video camera planted on them and waving hear arm as if to say 'don't mind me!'

* * *

Syaoran double checked his backpack before slinging it over his shoulder. Even though by China's definition he already had a high school diploma, he still needed to go to school in Japan. The boy let out a small sigh while he slipped on his shoes. He knew that he was only going to be able to keep an eye on Sakura but the lingering fact remained in the back of his head that as soon as he was done with his private tutors in China he had to go _back_ to school. '_At least I'll see some of my old friends,_' his mind told him as he locked his door and started walking. '_I wonder if any of them will remember me…_'

When he reached the sidewalk he let his skateboard hit the ground and jumped on it, gliding. The trip was relatively un-eventful until he reached the school. A few students that were on morning duty gave him an odd look as he boarded on the grounds. When he reached the shoe lockers he wiped his feet the best as he could before shrugging his backpack off so it hung only on his right shoulder and carried his skateboard with his left. '_Where was the office again?_' His mind tried desperately to remember but he still found himself pulling blanks as he idly wondered the halls. Several people turned to look at him but he expected as much since he _was_ a foreigner and his cloths reflected that. A tight fitting Chinese style red shirt and blue jeans along with street shoes clad his body and his backpack was clearly different than the standard school issued briefcase that other students carried. One student walked by and he suddenly felt compelled to turn around and look at him. The male he passed also stopped and the two stared at each other a while. "Have we…met before?" He spoke first.

"I don't know…" He replied, looking at Syaoran. "My name's Yamazaki. Yamazaki Takashi."

"…Dude!" Syaoran's eyes lit up. "It's me, Li! Li, Syaoran! We were in fourth grade together!"

"… Oh!" He looked shocked. "You went back to China man, glad to see you again!" The two bowed at each other before grinning. "What brings you back to Japan?" He eyed the backpack. "You coming to school here?"

"Yeah, starting today. I came here for a job, but I need a Japanese degree. When I applied for one they said I could just finish up the year and once my academic records were shipped over here as well I'd be set to go." It wasn't really a lie, but not quite the truth either.

"That's pretty intense, coming to another country for a job."

"Hey, I like Japan." He smirked. "But I'm totally lost, can you show me to the office?"

With the help of his friend Syaoran managed to get to where he needed to be and soon found himself standing outside the door of his classroom. Of course class had already started so the principal was with him and knocked on the door, calling the teacher over. The two talked a moment before Syaoran bowed at her and introduced himself. Once she had his name she led the boy into the room and introduced him to the class. Sakura, not knowing he would be there, let out a startled sound. Since she seemed to know him, the teacher placed the boy next to her at the back of the classroom.

"Hey there," He greeted as he put his backpack on the floor by his desk. "Miss me?" Any answer she would have given was cut off by the teacher resuming their lesson. Syaoran paid attention half heartedly until he realized that he already learned what was being taught so he instead let his mind wonder. Last time he was here he was on the other side of the school fence and often they would come over to it to talk to Yukito and Toya. Now he was a senior at the school and he halfway wondered if Sakura knew any of the Junior high students or elementary kids. As he thought about her he glanced over, seeing Sakura looking at him out of the corner of her eye and bouncing her leg quickly, as if she _really_ wanted the class to be over so she could ask him why he was there. Just to tease the girl Syaoran took a sheet of paper form his notebook and drew a smiley face on it before folding it numerous times to pack it into a neat little package. When the coast was clear he thumped it over onto her desk and enjoyed watching her try and figure out how to unfold it without being caught. When she did get it open he saw her look down at it excitedly a moment before blinking and turning to glare at him. She puffed out her cheeks in annoyance, obviously expecting some sort of explanation.

The rest of the classes were long and drawn out so Syaoran pondered on what was going on while the lessons progressed. The lunch bell chimed, bringing him back to the present time along with Sakura hopping from her desk and putting her hands on his. "What are you doing here?" She asked instantly, hopping in place while she waited for his answer.

"I heard the hot dogs were good on Mondays," He told her smoothly, but was rewarded with a smack to his head. "Ow. That was mean."

"Cry me a river," she smiled at him. "Really, why didn't you tell me you were going to come to school?"

"I didn't think about it at the time," He stood up and put his hands into his pockets. A lot of the class was looking over at them and he wanted to get away before they decided to interview him. "Is there anywhere we can go for lunch over here, I'm not familiar with the High School?"

"Yeah, come follow me." Sakura took his hand and lead him from the classroom and away from the people looking at him.

* * *

The day was finally over and Syaoran found himself alone, looking around the yard. Several people looked at him and he suddenly wished that he actually had ordered school uniforms. Since he was only staying half a year before graduation the school had decided that he would be exempted from the regulations. Now that he was in a bright red silk shirt and jeans among people in casual suits and ties, he felt very out of place. Fortunately he heard his name being called by a familiar voice and when he turned he was greeted by Takashi.

"You seem quite popular," He greeted the boy as he stopped to talk.

"Yeah, people act like they've never seen a Chinese kid in street cloths before."

"Well you _are_ in school you know." Takashi grinned to himself. "You joining any clubs?"

"Nah, Sakura asked me to meet her after school but she forgot to say _where _before she ran off."

"Sounds like her. She should be at the soccer field."

"Why there?"

"Cheerleading practice. Come on, I'm heading there anyway." He started walking and found Syaoran take pace next to him. "You still play?"

"Soccer? Yeah, I played while in China. I wasn't on any team or anything but there was a local street team that I played on. You know, the ones that just go around at parks and stuff to seek out people to play against?"

"Those are normally the best on the fields. My team got challenged by some like that and we lost horribly. Not to brag but my team's pretty good if I say so myelf."

"Your team?"

"I'm the captain."

"Whoa, nice man."

"Thanks." Takashi pointed out to the field. "Sakura should be with the girls over there, she's the cheerleading captain so she should be up front."

"She is!?"

"You didn't know?"

"She never told me she was captain…" Syaoran smirked to himself. That girl was way too humble sometimes.

"Well I gotta go, let's catch up later?"

"Sure thing!" He waved to his old friend and watched him go off to meet his team before walking along the sidelines and sitting in the stands, watching Sakura go through some cheerleading dance in front of the other girls. Since her back was to him he figured that she hadn't noticed him yet so after the girl did a small back flip he grinned and called out his greeting. "Thanks for the panty shot!"

"Kya!" Sakura shoved her hands down on her cheerleading skirt and blushed darkly before common sense took over and she turned to yell at the voice. "They're bloomers you idiot!" When she saw who called out to her the anger vanished and she called back over to him in a more playful tone. "Much better than your heart boxer shorts!"

"Hey!" Syaoran flushed as the other cheerleaders broke into small giggles amongst themselves.

Sakura waved to him with her pom-pom and turned back to her squad. The practice lasted little more than half an hour and after which she was forced by her friends to introduce the boy who called out to her. Syaoran was massed by the cheerleaders, all of which seemed to want to braid his hair. The poor boy finally managed to get away from them and leaned against the fence while they then questioned Sakura on how she knew 'such a cute transfer student'.

Syaoran didn't have to wait long before Sakura came back over to him after changing back into her normal cloths. "Sorry for making you wait," She greeted as she skated over to him.

"I don't think I've seen you in normal shoes since I've came back," He teased as she held on to his arm while he walked so she would glide next to him.

"I was in normal shoes all day at school, thank you." She veered a little, making Syaoran turn. "We need to stop by Tomoyo's mother's work place."

"What for?" He felt a little smile come knowing that she was already including him in all her daily activities. Ever since he had come back the girl had been clinging to him like glue.

"She's doing a photo shoot and wants me to model with her."

"You model!?"

"…Not really… maybe… sort of… I guess?" Sakura looked away from here. "Just when she ask me too. Not like a job or anything…"

"You get paid for it?"

"…Yeah?"

"Then it's a job. Wow, cheerleader captain and a model!"

"It's not like that!" She protested, face tinted red. "It's just a favor to a friend!"

"Suuure." The boy slid his hands into his pockets.

"Syaoran! Really!" She pulled him along another curve and up to a building where she waved to the doorman. Sakura led the boy down a few hallways and into a large room that had music blaring. A man waved a "quiet on the set" sign in front of them and both nodded before they were aloud to pass.

Syaoran couldn't hide his surprised face when he saw the small raven haired girl. Tomoyo was currently clad in something straight out of a Victoria secret magazine and was lip singing the song being played as a camera followed her around. His mouth hung open as she twirled and blew a kiss.

"And cut!" The director said after a moment. "That one works, Tomoyo-san, thank you." Several choruses of 'good job everyone!' rang out as the people started wrapping up the scene.

"Tomoyo!" Sakura called out, waving.

"Sakura!" The girl slipped on a robe and tied it before running over to her and kissing her cheek. "Glad you could make it!" She glanced over her friend's shoulder Syaoran, who was still dumbstruck. "Syaoran, you're staring."

"Eh!? Uh, sorry." He scratched the back of his neck. "Not everyday you see your friend in something like that."

"I guess not." Tomoyo picked up a magazine that was on a small table and flipped through it a moment. When she got to the section she wanted she back flipped a few pages and showed it to the boy. "How about these?" She saw Syaoran's face flush.

"Um, nice?" He grinned lightly. "But Seeing my 'little sister' in lingerie doesn't really do it for me…"

"How about this then?" she flipped a few more pages.

"Tomoyo don't you _dare_!" Sakura instantly tried to grab the book from her and a small catfight broke out before Tomoyo finally managed to give Syaoran the magazine back. The boy looked down at it while his friend held back Sakura, who was actually screaming that she would kill Tomoyo in her sleep if she didn't let go.

Syaoran's world blurred. Sakura was modeling in the magazine, and modeling _nice_ at that. "Wow… …. Just wow…." The book was ripped from his hands and Sakura held it closed to her chest, panting heavily and clutching the magazine as if her very life depended on it. "Hot stuff!"

"Syaoran!" Sakura turned to her friend "You said you'd never let anyone know I did those!"

"Oh relax they're nowhere near as revealing as you make them out to be! You could have been in the lingerie section like me."

"But you have boobs, I don't." Sakura stuck out her tongue and instantly found Syaoran's eyes glance a little lower on her to confirm the statement. "Eyes up here," she told him, reaching out and lifting his chin with one finger.

"Ack! Sorry!" He blushed and looked away, more embarrassed by Sakura's pleased expression that he actually did look rather than having being caught doing so.

"Tomoyo-san!" Someone called out, jogging over to her. "We have a small problem."

"Problem?" The girl blinked. "What's wrong?"

"Joe was in a car accident coming to work today. He's okay, just a broken leg."

"A broken leg isn't okay!" She countered, a little upset. "Does my mom know?"

"She told us to tell you." The man looked a little nervous.

"Mou!" Tomoyo stomped her foot. "I'm only doing this when I have to, I don't _want_ to take over the director's job!"

"Sorry Tomoyo-san…"

Syaoran leaned over Sakura's shoulder and whispered in her ear. "What's going on?"

Turning her head slightly, Sakura whispered back up at him. "Tomoyo's mother is the head of the costume design here, and since she's in charge of the models, the commercial crew- who use those models- also have to go through her before they can film anything for something they sell. In short Tomoyo's mother controls all of this and she's trying to get Tomoyo interested in joining her, slash, taking over when she retires. Unfortunately Tomoyo's just doing this for fun so it kind of gets on her nerves when something like this happens and she has to make a decision."

"Oh that sucks," Syaoran looked at the panicking girl in front of him.

"Syaoran!" Tomoyo suddenly turned and looked at him. "I need a favor!"

"Eh!?"

"Can you be in the commercial with Sakura!?"

"What!?" Syaoran looked down at the honey-blond friend of his. "I thought you were going to do a photo shoot or something?"

"She talked me into a commercial." Sakura smiled lightly. "But you being in it is news to me."

"Please Syaoran!" Tomoyo held her hands up in front of her. "It won't mean as much if a foreigner isn't the main role!"

"Main!?" He took a step back and waved his arms. "Noooooo, no, no, no, no. No way, no how! I'm not going to be in a commercial!"

"Pleeeeeaaaaaaasssseeeeee!" Tomoyo hopped in place, giving him big puppy dog eyes. "Do it for your little sister!"

"But…"

Tomoyo turned to Sakura and nodded at her. Getting a nod back, they both turned to Syaoran and gave him cute eyes. "Pleeeeeease?" They whined together cutely.

"That's not fair!"

* * *

"Are you still mad at me?" Sakura asked lightly as they walked together down the streets.

"Yes," Syaoran lied, looking ahead while playfully pulling his arm away when Sakura tried to grab a hold of it.

"Oh come on," She grinned. "You did great! You'll see when it airs. It wasn't hard at all, we didn't even have any lines to say!"

"All you did was lay there, it was easy for you." Again he danced away from the girl when she tried to grab him again. "No free ride for you, I'm tired of pulling you all around-" He stopped in mid sentence and halted his walking as well, making Sakura glide into him and almost fall.

"Syaoran don't stop so suddenly!" She protested but was cut off when he shushed her. "….What?"

"Don't you feel that?"

Sakura gave him a confused look but closed her eyes anyway. A moment later they snapped back open. "We're being watched!" she whispered up to him.

"Yeah…" Syaoran started walking again, this time taking her hand. "Where can we go from here?" His voice was soft now.

"There's nothing here but the kid's playground where the emperor penguin is."

"Let's hope it's deserted at this time…" It was already late since Tomoyo's commercial and dinner with them had eaten up most of the day. The two continued along their way via moonlight with Sakura leading him slightly by pulling his hand whenever he needed to make a turn. "You scared?" He asked after they were quiet a few minutes.

"Nervous," She replied after a moment. "Not really scared, but I have that funny feeling in my stomach where you're about to do something you really don't want to."

"… I'm sorry you got caught up in this."

"Don't be," Sakura shook her head. "I'm glad. Glad I can help you, glad we're together again, even if it's like this…"

Syaoran had to force himself to not stop and hug the girl. His mind flashed back several years where they stood at the airport and he had confessed his love to her. She never could answer him but her actions implied that she did care for him, and it was enough for him. The word love has yet to re-appear between them in their conversations but Sakura would always say that she cared for him before they hung up on the phone. Subconsciously he gave her hand a gentle squeeze and Sakura felt a little of the uneasiness lift from her shoulders.

"Ready?" He asked when they made it to the middle of the vacant playground.

"Steady. Never look back?"

His lips twitched lightly. "Give me good luck." Before she could reply he let go of her hand and reached into one of his baggy jeans pockets and pulled out a folded piece of cloth before snapping his wrist and flaring out his cloak. "Come on out!" He yelled as he turned, making the cloak latch at his neck and flare out behind him. When the fabric settled down Syaoran had the green tinted goggles on his eyes and his sword in his hand. "If you're going to follow someone at least do it properly!"

Three figures came into view, each looking at them threateningly. "So it's true… Wolf has appeared in Japan after all."

"Disappointing. Xian can't seem to do his job anymore."

"But even Wolf cannot stand up to three of us."

Sakura pulled her necklace off and held it out in front of her, turning it into her wand. "Don't forget me!" She challenged.

"Hardly worth the effort," The first man spoke.

"Short burst of magical attacks, nothing more." The third man waved her off.

"Wolf is the only one to be concerned of." The second man agreed.

Sakura growled in her throat, making Syaoran chuckle lightly. "Don't hurt them too bad now, Sakura." He teased.

"Oh I won't," Sakura told him, swinging her wand out and making three invisible cards twirl in front of her.

Syaoran, knowing Sakura's powers, felt pleased with her. She had just activated the Fight, Dash, and Power cards all at the same time. "Yeouch, you going to break their bones or what?"

"Maybe," Sakura ran forward so fast she left a small breeze behind herself. The man in the middle was slammed hard in the stomach before being violently uppercutted and sent reeling back several yards. Pressing the surprise attack, she dropped to the ground and spun her leg out, tripping both men. She righted herself and slashed her wand again, making a sword appear and pointed it at the neck of the right man she tripped.

"So," Syaoran called to the man who was knocked away, also having his sword pointed down at a floored man. "In five seconds two of your men have swords at their throats. Think you've lost this one?"

"Think not!" The Man Sakura had pinned turned his head, showing Sakura a large silver earring. Before she could ponder it, the earring exploded, causing a large flash of light.

"Kya!" Sakura stumbled backwards and slashed out her sword blindly as she did so.

"Sakura!" Syaoran expertly jumped away from his felled prey and grabbed her, blocking another attack from one of the men.

"You should be blind too!" He shouted.

"You obviously don't know your opponent very well," Syaoran scoffed, parrying the attack and thrust his sword forward, stabbing the man in the shoulder. He leapt back a few times to gain distance while his opponent screamed in pain. "Sakura, you okay?"

"I can't see very well," She replied, rubbing her watering eyes. "But I'm not hurt." She got to a standing position with his help. "Two left?"

"Yeah. You better stay back and attack from a distance."

"Sorry."

"Hey, you're stronger that way anyway right?"

"Can you handle two on one?" Sakura held out her wand in front of her.

"Easily," he watched them draw their own swords. "I'll have them down in less than forty seconds."

"I'll cast in fewer than thirty." Sakura grinned, getting her vision back. "Don't get hurt."

"Never!" He lunged forward and slashed twice, forcing the two nameless men backwards. Syaoran grabbed his cloak and flared it out, temporarily blinding the men of his actions. The boy twirled around and lashed again, clipping them both across the chest

_The Key that hides the power of the stars…_

"Don't get cocky, Wolf!" One of them called out as he pulled a talisman from his shirt and held it out. A strong gust of wind came forth from it and blasted Syaoran back and forcing him to embed his sword into the ground to keep from getting blown away. "Just because you caught us off guard doesn't mean we're weak!"

_Show your true form before me…_

"You're the ones underestimating people!" Syaoran called back angrily against the wind. The yellow circle on his lens flashed around frantically before turning red and staying in place. With his target locked in, Syaoran pulled his sword from the ground and pointed it at the man attacking him. "God of thunder, hear my call!" Lightning shot from the tip of the sword and cracked the talisman being used against him.

_I, Sakura, command the under contract…_

Syaoran growled out a battle cry as he ran forward with his sword posed above his head. The blade clashed against one of his opponents and was quickly pulled back to deflect another lash made at him. Two sounds of clashing metal later and he shot out his foot, connecting with one of the man's hand and robbing him of his sword. "Goddess of water, come to my plea!" a small tsunami of water ripped from his hand and into the man's face, forcing him to fly backwards and skid across the ground.

_Release!_

"You're wide open!" The final person screamed, slinging his sword down, barely catching Syaoran on his right shoulder.

"And you're just stupid!" Syaoran twirled around and kicked, doubling the man over. Jumping backwards, Syaoran surveyed the area. From the three men that he had fought, none were currently standing but all were pushing themselves up. It looked as if the ones he was fighting right now were more than simple push-overs.

Sakura opened her eyes and reached out, grabbing the great staff in front of her. The magic rod stood six feet tall, towering her greatly. The bottom tip touched the ground, instantly embedding her personal magic circle into the earth in a glowing pink haze. "Oh card of the stars, please come to my aid…"

"What's she doing!?" one of the challenges pointed at Sakura, where a pink card was forming in front of her.

"She's incanting magic!"

"But the reports said she could only handle short burst at a time!"

Syaoran stood up fully, letting the wind blow his cloak around him. "You think the card mistress would be so weak?" he asked them, dead pan. "There is a great difference between a battle mage and a sorcerer. Sakura here can fight a good deal but her power speed and ability comes from the cards with a skill so great that only she can see the spells she cast…" He took a defensive stance when all three of the men ran forward to attack at the same time. "But given time…!"

"Become one with me, and help fight my enemies…" Sakura lifted her staff lightly and gripped it with both her hands.

Syaoran deflects the attacks as best he could. Mentally he judged the situation and realized that the people he was fighting had to be some of the best assassins around. If Sakura wasn't backing him up he had to admit that he wouldn't walk away from this battle scar free.

"Fiery!" Sakura moved her staff forwards and pointed it at the card. Wings erupted from the star tip of her staff and feathers flew thick around her. A dull scream rang through the area as a female's body came into formation. Her flesh was made of flame and her lower body was that of an inferno. "Fiery," Sakura began, bringing her staff back upright and touching it to the ground. "Incinerate and consume!"

Fiery turned her eyes on the people fighting Syaoran and let out a shrill scream before flashing forward.

"What the hell!?"

"She'll attack her own comrade!?"

Syaoran smirked at them before the flames engulfed his body. Fire flashed across his vision and he heard the cries for help of the three men. Looking around he noticed that the entire park was one huge inferno, casting its glow frantically all around the buildings by them. Despite this he didn't feel any of the heat and knew that although everything was burning, nothing was being hurt except for the men in front of him. Seconds passed and all at once the flames died off and the female elf-type spirit hovered in the air above them, hissing threateningly. "I think it would be best if you gave up," Syaoran said, walking over to them and destroying their swords each in turn with a well placed thrust from his own. "Before Sakura's card decides to burn you alive."

The men coughed and rolled on the ground, too weak to actually stand. "So strong…" One of them managed out, arching his back in pain. "So much power…"

"And that was just one card," Sakura spoke up finally. "I have fifty-one more and can call up to ten out at the same time."

Syaoran let out a small whistle at her. "Ten? Wow, you've improved a little."

"I try," The faint sounds of sirens came to her ears and she looked over at her friend. "We better scram."

"Good idea," Syaoran nodded at her and the pair took off out of the park, leaving the three men to wither on the ground.

* * *

"That was impressive," Syaoran finally said as they rode the elevator up to his penthouse.

"You don't think I hurt them too bad do you? I mean, I don't want to kill them…"

"Don't worry about that, from the way they fought I doubt they were even still there by the time the fire department arrived. Worst case scenario they have a few scars from the burns."

"Yeah…" Sakura took a deep breath and let it out." I'm hoping they'll get scarred and stop all this foolishness."

"That why you used Fiery?"

"Un," She nodded at him and reached to grab his arm when he started walking out of the elevator. The motion made the boy grimace lightly and grunt. "Syaoran?" She skated a little forward and shifted his cloak to look at him. "You're bleeding!"

"It's nothing,"

"It's something!"

"I don't want you to worry."

"I'll worry more if you try to hide it!"

"But…"

"No buts!" Sakura looked up at him forcefully. "If you get hurt, anything at all, I want you to tell me. Got it?"

"…Got it."

"Good. Let's get you inside and have a look at it." Sakura skated ahead of him and unlocked the door to his home with her own key, making him grin to himself. A few minutes later and he found himself shirtless on his bed while Sakura inspected him. "Good it's nothing more than a small cut. Good thing, you're right handed aren't you? It wouldn't be good if you couldn't use your arm."

"Yeah," He smirked at her. "You want to stay the night over here? I really don't want you going home incase you're attacked again or something."

"I'd really appreciate that if I could, actually." She responded absently. "I'm too lazy to skate all the way home anyway."

Syaoran nodded and after a small silent pause he teased her. "So now that you got me on my bed and shirtless what are you going to do?"

"I," She replied teasingly. "Am going to strip down naked," She placed her forehead against his. "And rub my hands all over my body…" She grinned at his shocked look. "With soap and water, and shampoo my hair in the shower." Sakura pulled back and thumped his nose before going to his closet and stealing a shirt. "Don't mind do you?"

"Not at all," he coughed out, red in the face.

* * *

Sakura rolled over in bed, kicking the covers off of her body and looking up at the ceiling. The boy across the bed mumbled out something and pulled the covers back up. "Gods, Syaoran, it's burning up!" she protested in a whisper, fanning herself.

"It's cold," He whispered back, not really awake yet but replying to her anyway.

"You have the heat on like eighty," She told him, pushing the covers back down off of her. "I'm sweating, I swear."

The boy lazily opened one eye and reached over to his friend and rubbed her neck slightly. "No you're not." She reached up and took his hand before he brought it back to himself. She was going to protest a little more but he spoke first. "Oh hey, you're warm," He sleepily pulled her closer and wrapped her in a hug.

Sakura blushed darkly but didn't seem to mind the close embrace. Moments passed slowly before Sakura finally had enough. "Ugh, you're too warm." She cried, pulling away from him. "I can't cuddle when it's this hot, let me turn on the A/C?"

"You can get cooler but I can't get warmer," Syaoran protested the idea.

"Mou, fine!" Sakura pulled off her shirt and kicked off her pajama pants before lying in the bed again now only in her undergarments. "Don't you dare look when it's light again."

"Seen it before," Syaoran yawned, already going back to sleep. "G'night Princess."

Sakura felt herself blush a little. She was practically naked in his bed and he just casually called her by her pet name and was already drifting off back to sleep. "…Syaoran?"

"Hmmmnn?"

"If you are cold, you can hold me if you want?"

"Don't want to get you hot," He murmured, reaching out and laying his hand on hers. "We'll figure out something about this tomorrow. Go to sleep."

"… 'Kay." She looked at her hand in his and felt a small smile play on her lips.

It felt nice.

* * *

Author's notes: Sorry for the very late update, been really busy. I'll try and have chapter 4 out in the next few days so look for it. 


	4. I will be the one to hold you

I awoke slowly, somewhat aware that the sun wasn't even bright enough to light my room completely just yet. Despite this I found myself sitting up and rubbing my eyes to clear the haze from them. I was still a little jet lagged from living in Hong Kong for so long and my sleeping schedule showed it. The clock on my bed stand told me I still had a good hour and a half before I had to leave for school but I already knew that I couldn't go back to sleep after waking up even if I wanted to. I slid out of bed and glanced over my shoulder towards Sakura, who was cuddled up against one of my pillows with the covers half off of her. '_So much for not looking,_' my mind told me as I took an extra moment to take in her body. '_Ah what the hell, a little eye candy never hurt anyone._' I chuckled to myself as I walked out of my room, now pleased that I had woken up early. That sight was well worth it.

**Whispers in the Dark IV**

**By: Satashi**

Syaoran tossed the omelet in the skillet with a quick flip of his wrist. The mass doubled over on itself and began to cook again after a quick shake to get it back to the center of the pan. It had taken the boy a good part of a month to learn how to do that without ending up with scrambled eggs a few moments later. A small noise caught his attention, bringing his eyes towards his bedroom where he saw a still half asleep Sakura stumble over to the barstools. She had grabbed one of his button up white shirts, but only took the time to fasten the top three before giving up. "Morning sunshine," He greeted her, plating the eggs and tossing some toast beside them as well before serving his friend.

"G'mornin…" She replied lazily as she tried to wake up. I'm still sleepy."

"I can tell," Syaoran put a glass of orange juice in front of her as well before starting on his own breakfast. "Didn't stay up all night did you?"

"Nah, just when we talked." She ate a little of the offered food and took a moment to taste it. "Hey, this is actually really good."

"Actually?" He acted hurt. "Don't be so surprised; I'm a mean chef."

"So I notice," Sakura began to eat a little faster, now more awake. "Wow, they taste different than what I've ever had. What did you put in them?"

"Secret." Syaoran flipped his eggs in the skillet and let them cook while making some more toast for himself. "You can't live with so many sisters and not learn how to cook. Don't tell anyone but I bake some awesome cookies too."

Sakura laughed in her drink, quickly causing herself to cough a moment before laying her head down, giggling at the mental image of Syaoran in a pink fluffy apron baking cookies. "Oh gods, too funny!"

Syaoran plated his food and decided to lean against the counter in front of her to eat instead of walking around the bar to sit next to the girl. Idle chat followed as they shared the meal and he couldn't help but notice that although he liked the flirty Sakura a lot, he came to really adore the sleepy one as well. Sakura was making simple mistakes and even missed her mouth when trying to take a bite. Syaoran knew that he wouldn't let her live that one down for a long time to come. A grin came to his face, catching the girl's attention. When she was about to ask why he was smiling at her his watched beeped at them. "It's time to wake up," He laughed. "We need to leave for school in about fifteen minutes."

"You can wake up and leave within fifteen minutes!?"

"…Can't you?"

Sakura blushed. "Uh, yeah. Of course." It took her almost an hour. "Don't look at me like that!" She grabbed the empty plates and walked around the bar and over to the sink. "Go get ready, I'll do the dishes."

"I have a dishwasher you know."

"You have to pre-wash them before you put them in or they don't get clean."

"…..then what's the _point_ of a dishwasher?"

"Shush, don't question a female on cleaning." She pointed at him with a dirty fork. "Now go get dressed, I'll clean up."

"Yes mam." Syaoran left the girl to her desires and changed into some casual pants and a long sleeved shirt. Hopping to put on his socks, he walked back to the kitchen after a quick stop in the bathroom to grab a brush and start combing his hair.

"Here, let me." Sakura told him, taking the brush from his hand in mid stroke and making him sit down at a barstool. "How long have you been growing your hair?"

"I don't know," Syaoran felt her take long strokes on him and closed his eyes. "Just for a really long time."

Sakura pondered the length and decided that it had to be at least five years, if not six. "Why long hair though? Back then you never even touched a comb, let alone used it."

"Someone I really looked up to had long hair; I think I wanted to be like him. By the time I realized that just growing my hair wouldn't do anything I already had it past my shoulders so I just decided to see how long it would get. I'm really picky about it."

"Oh?" Sakura took advantage of him being distracted by his story and parted his hair twice. "How so?"

"I would freak out on anyone who touched it, even my sisters. I think if I wanted to get it cut anyway no one would do it because I was so protective of it."

"Just like a girl," she teased him.

"Hey now," He got a small giggle. "That's why I didn't let your friends mess with it the other day."

"It's okay, I don't blame them. Your hair just screams 'braid me!'."

"Think so?"

Sakura looked around and found her discarded hair ties on the stand by the couch and quickly reached over to grab one. "Yup, I think so." Working fast, she looped the small pink ribbon around the end of the now braided hair and tied it in a snug bow. "There, finished." With the braid his hair only came to the middle of his back, a few inches past his shoulders.

"Thanks," Syaoran stood up and shook his head. He stood still a moment before reaching back and gripping the thick braid and pulling it over his shoulder to look at it. "You _braided_ it!?"

"Yup!"

"I am _not_ wearing a braid, let alone one with a pink ribbon." He went to untie the thread but Sakura grabbed his hand.

"But it's cute!"

"Cute isn't what I'm going for, Princess."

"As your princess, I command you to leave it in." She closed one eye and stuck out her tongue. "Don't disobey me now."

"…" The boy let out a sigh. "Fine, fine. Just for today and by that I mean _only_ today!"

"All right!" Sakura cheered, pumping her fist in the air. Syaoran's eyes darted downward when she did the motion and the girl quickly realized that she had just given him a grade-A panty shot since the shirt wasn't buttoned all the way down. "Pervert!"

"Hey _you_ did it!"

Sakura puffed her cheeks out at him. "You made me."

"Oh now it's my fault? How did I _make_ you?"

"You made me happy!"

He smirked. "So if I make you happy I get flashed?"

"Yes… no!" Sakura smacked him upside the head. "Don't make me say weird things!" She brushed past him quickly to go change. "I'm going to get ready so…" Her voice trailed off slowly. "Uh oh."

"What?"

Sakura turned to look at him. "…I don't have any school uniforms here."

* * *

Sakura felt her cheeks color darkly as she walked through the halls of her high school with her friend. She was currently wearing a black Chinese style shirt and white drawstring pants. Next to her Syaoran was wearing a white Chinese shirt with dark black blue jeans. He didn't seem to think anything about it since he was already dressed and the only shirt that Sakura had bought when shopping with him was the one she was wearing. The girl on the other hand could almost _feel_ the eyes on her. Several students whispered while pointing at them, making her walk quicker to her homeroom.

Syaoran took his time getting to class, allowing his friend to run ahead for whatever reason she needed to. His backpack was shifted lightly to keep it from falling off his shoulder as he walked, making a few girls giggle to themselves while watching.

"Syaoran!" Someone hopped next to him, placing his arm around the boy's neck and giving him a noogie. "Nice ribbon you have going on there!" Takashi greeted him with a laugh. "Get tackled by some girls?"

"Just one," He replied as he shrugged his friend off with a grin. "Sakura did it before I realized it."

"Sounds fun," He waved and stopped. "My class is here; let's meet up for lunch at the fountain?"

"Sure thing!" Syaoran waved at him as the boy retreated into the room and by the time he made it to his own class he heard Sakura finishing up her lie to the teacher about how she was caught in an emergency situation last night and couldn't get home so she borrowed cloths to wear to school. Walking past her, he tossed his bag next to his chair and flumped down into it.

"Cute ribbon, Syaoran." A voice whispered in his ear, making him turn to look at Tomoyo. "I do believe that's Sakura's hair tie?"

"Possibly," He evaded her, looking at a small dark green device she was offering him. "What's that?"

"A cell phone," she told him, eyes shining in a playful manor. "You know the things people use to make phone calls with?"

"I know _that_." He took it when she placed it in his hand and flipped it open. "New model razor?"

"Yup. It's cliché now, but it's the only one that I think fits you."

"Me?" He looked at it and flipped to the phone book, seeing Sakura and Tomoyo's numbers already in it.

"Late birthday present," She told him, patting him on the head. "Don't worry about the plan; it's already taken care of. Free calls to China and five friends, blah blah blah, you know."

"Wow, thanks." He grinned down at the phone. "I appreciate it. Really." He looked up to see Sakura sit down next to him and noticed that half the class was looking at them. "Huh?"

"Oh my, matching cloths! Aren't you two the cute couple?" Tomoyo flashed a picture of them just as Syaoran remembered that the Japanese have a tradition of dressing the same at school for one day after starting a new relationship.

* * *

"Been a busy day I take it?" Takashi asked his friend as Syaoran slumped underneath a tree by him.

"It's been hell," The amber eyed boy responded with a sigh. "I've been getting all these weird looks from girls and guys have been sending me death glares. What's going on?"

"I noticed you and Sakura were wearing matching outfits, you dating again?"

"Never was really, and it just happened to be the same today." He started shoveling food into his mouth. "People read too much into things."

"I see." Takashi started eating his meal as well. "But just incase, watch out for Keith, all right?"

"Keith?" Syaoran blinked.

"American transfer student, came here last year sometime. He's the captain of the Lacrosse team and Sakura's self-proclaimed boyfriend. A real Bandit if you ask me."

"Self proclaimed?"

"She blows him off all the time but he still swears up and down that they're dating. Beats up any guy that makes a pass at her."

"Sounds like fun," Syaoran rolled his eyes. "Two days into school and I already have a fight on my hands." He went to take another bite of food but found the collar of his shirt gripped tightly and he was hoisted to his feet. "What the!?"

"You must be the new kid," A large man addressed him. "You don't know the rules here so Keith's gonna let you in on them. Rule number one, no one flirts with Sakura but me. Rule number two, if you break number one you'll learn the hard way not to do it again… In America!"

"In…what?" Syaoran gave him an odd look before twisting out of his grip and fixing his shirt. "Keith, huh?" He got a nod. "I really don't know what's going on but I'll say this, if Sakura turned you down you need to back off. I don't think she likes clingy rejects hanging around her and scaring off any new boyfriends she may have."

"She just hasn't come to realize she loves me is all."

The girl in question chose that moment to run around the corner of the school building and catch sight of them. "Syaoran! Yamazaki-kun!" The rest of the way over to them was made quickly. "… and Keith-san."

"Call me Keith."

"I'll pass." Sakura looked over at Syaoran and offered an apologetic look.

"What say we ditch the rest of school and go to my place, baby?" Keith put an arm around the girl, making her look like she was about to get sick.

"Hands off, Keith-san, I've told you before I'm not your girlfriend."

"You belong to me, toots. That's the way things work… In America!"

"Yeah well, we're in Japan pal." Syaoran gripped Keith's wrist and squeezed it hard. A few seconds passed before the pain finally registered on the larger man's face and he ripped his arm away from him. "I don't see a tag on her so she must not belong to you."

"Look harder then, brat."

Syaoran leaned over to look at the back of Sakura's neck. "Oh hey, there it is." He got an amused sound from the American man so he continued. "Says here 'Syaoran' so I guess she doesn't' belong to you, huh?" Laughter rang up around them from the small crowd that was gathered. Keith grit he teeth and reached out once again to grab Syaoran's shirt. The boy this time chose rather to side step and trip him, making him fall down. "Come on Sakura; let's go get some food or something." He put his hand on her back to guide her away, which she did so gratefully. "Want to come, Takashi?"

"I would but looks like a teacher's coming so I'll vouch for you when she gets here."

"Thanks, we'll hook up after school then." He started walking again with Sakura, leaving his friend to cover his actions.

"This isn't over, brat!" Keith called out after them, getting a casual two finger wave from Syaoran as he walked away.

"I thought you were going to slug him," Sakura stated after a moment.

"Not worth the effort. What's the deal anyway?"

"Just some crazy stalker." She rolled her eyes. "No one really pays attention to him so I just ignore it for the most part."

"Kick his ass," Syaoran grinned. "You know karate don't you?"

"I could really hurt him!" She protested quickly, making Syaoran laugh. "Mou, don't laugh at me!"

"I'm laughing because it's true!" He chuckled a little more before allowing her to lead him to the roof where Tomoyo was waiting for her.

"But all the same… thanks." She looked up at him. "It made me happy to hear that."

"What?"

She closed one eye and gave him a cute look. "That my tag says 'Syaoran'."

"Tha-that was just the first thing I could think of!"

Sakura smiled at him. "Thank you."

"…You're welcome," He scratched the back of his neck, for once glad that his hair wasn't loose today.

* * *

"Hey Syaoran!" Takashi's voice made the boy turn around and wave at him. "Where you going?"

"Watch Sakura's cheerleading, what you up to?"

"Ah perfect," He ignored the question reflected back at him and instead went to his point. "Let's throw a party!"

"Say what?"

"A party; You know, the three 'B's."

"The three B's?"

"Beers, Bands, and Babes!" Takashi slapped him on the back. "For real, a party to get you known around here. You could use a few good friends."

"... I don't see any harm in that. Okay sure. Where at?"

"Your place of course! I heard you had a penthouse!"

"Yeah," Syaoran felt uneasy. "Not going to destroy my pad are they?"

"Nah, maybe trash it up a little but not destroy. Small price to pay for getting your name around school. Plus since you threw one over on old Keith you've already made a few friends as well. Might as well meet them."

"Okay, okay; you win. My place. Saturday night assuming?"

"You would assume correctly." Takashi ran ahead and waved. "We'll meet up after practice!"

* * *

"Party, huh?" Tomoyo asked as her friends walked over to her at the studio where she did her free-lance work. "Sounds like a blast."

Syaoran paused a moment before pointing at her. "How did you know I was throwing a party?" He looked at Sakura. "I didn't even tell you yet!"

"Tomoyo's known as the queen of information…" Sakura gave him an uneasy smile. "Nothing happens in the school without her knowing about it."

"So they say," Tomoyo put her fingers to her chin and thought. "Not much time to put it all together. I can get you catered but the entertainment will have to be up to you."

"I know some people in the school band that can play?" Sakura offered.

"A band in my little place? Crazy." Syaoran shook his head. "Penthouse or not, it's still an apartment. I can order a pay-per-view concert or something and crank it up."

"Drinks?"

"Ooooh," Sakura brought a hand to her mouth.

"Don't let Sakura get anything alcoholic," Tomoyo warned him. "She gets…catty."

"Hey!" Sakura puffed out her cheeks. "At least I keep my shirt on!"

"Sakura!"

Syaoran looked over at Tomoyo. "You didn't…" The look on her face told him otherwise. "You _did_! Oh I wish I was there!" The boy got two smacks on the head after that statement, once from each of the girls. "_So_ worth knowing that."

* * *

"Come on in!" Sakura called out as Tomoyo knocked on the open door. "Syaoran, help her out please."

The boy looked over at his new guest and hopped over his couch to grab the large box she was carrying. "Hey Tomoyo, what you got in here, its heavy?" Syaoran sat the box on the armrest of his couch to get a better grip on it.

"The new fall fashion!" She declared happily as a few people in white chef uniforms followed her inside, each carrying platters or boxes. "I brought some for you too, Syaoran."

"Eh?" He looked around at all the people. "What?"

"Oh don't mind them, they're just going to set up the food and stuff for the party." Tomoyo waved her hand to get his attention. "Look here," She reached in the box and pulled up a light long sleeved green shirt. "This is my favorite. The material is stretchy so it form-fits your body." She tossed it to him and watched him inspect it. "Show off your muscles for a certain someone."

"Tomoyo!" Sakura hissed at her, blushing.

"So they send you cloths that your company is producing?" Syaoran asked, looking in the box.

"She gets two of each new item," Sakura explained, looking in the box and pulling out a cute pink three-quarter sleeved shirt with white hearts on it. "One for her, and she always gives the rest to me. You should see my closet; it's packed so full I have to literally bend my hangers to get my cloths out."

"Yeouch…"

"I got the male fashions for you, Syaoran." Tomoyo gave him a smile. "Since you don't have school uniforms be sure to show them off okay?"

"Walking billboard, huh?" Syaoran looked in the box again with a smirk. "I don't mind at all. Saves me the trouble of shopping for more cloths. Thanks. Really." He pulled out another article of clothing from the box but quickly dropped it and looked away.

"Oh yeah, new lingerie for you, Sakura." Tomoyo picked up the lacy bra that the boy had just dropped and showed it to her. "Look, you can almost see right through it!"

"Oooh!" Sakura cooed out, turning her attention to her. "You're right!" Her eyes darted to Syaoran to make sure he was getting embarrassed. "I should change into it now!"

"Oh you _should!_ It has matching panties too, side-tie!"

"Girls, come _on_!" Syaoran almost screamed, eyes closed tightly. "I'm _right_ here!"

"This is so much fun," Tomoyo giggled.

"Syaoran do you mind if I stash these in your closet till after the party? Last thing I need is some drunk guy finding my underwear."

"Sure, the bottom left drawer in my dresser is empty and my closet is huge so help yourself."

Sakura thanked him and picked up the box with Tomoyo's help and the two girls went back to his room. "I've never actually looked around his room," Tomoyo mused as she took the chance to inspect his sleeping quarters.

"He's a bit sloppy so I try to clean up after him when I come over," Sakura told her absently as she claimed one of his drawers. "Go in his closet, it's neat."

"Oh wow!" Tomoyo walked into the large closet and held out her arms. "It's huge!" She could take four steps into it and still not run into the wall. Hanger racks on both sides as well as cubby holes at the end, it was any girl's dream closet. "Is this all the cloths he has?" She inspected the small section of hanging cloths.

"Yeah, his others were on the plane when… you know."

"Ah," Tomoyo retreated from the closet and started picking out his cloths from the mixed up box. "I'll make sure he gets some winter cloths as well." Any response she may have gotten was cut off from Syaoran's voice as he greeted Takashi, who had apparently just arrived.

* * *

"Hey guys!" Syaoran leaned over the couch to speak to the four guys crashed on it playing the Nintendo Wii. "Having a blast?" He got a few nods at him. "Like beer?" He revealed a six pack in his hand and this time got a more enthusiastic response. "Here ya go, ice cold. Don't hold anything back guys, more where that came from."

"Dude you rock man!"

"Call me Syaoran," He nodded at them and made his way through the ever thickening crowd. When he reached the kitchen he gave his raven haired friend a light grin. "Tomoyo, how many people did you invite? If anymore show up we'll be cramped to hell and back."

"Oh man check it out! His veranda windows open up to the roof!" a random person hopped out his window and looked around. "It's huge out here guys!"

"Great," Syaoran went to stop them but Tomoyo grabbed his arm.

"It has rails right?"

"Yeah?"

"Then let'm have fun. Space issue solved." She gave him another pack of drinks. "Go serve them and take your radio out there too."

Defeated, Syaoran nodded and took the offered drinks before hopping out the window as well. Sakura watched him go while giggling to herself. "Seems like everyone is showing up, huh?"

"Yeah, the soccer team and cheerleaders would have been enough but you know how it goes… a friend tells a friend, tells a friend…" The sound of more people walking in caught their attention and Sakura went to make their new guest welcome while Tomoyo continued to walk around making sure everyone had snacks to munch on.

Syaoran realized that several hours had already gone past without him even noticing. Names and faces blurred together in his mind, but it seemed as if almost everyone there knew who he was since he was the one throwing the party for them. His eyes scanned the room to take in what was currently going on. Four guys, noticeably drunk, were playing Mario Tennis on his Wii while several people watched. More than a few were dancing provocatively to the loud music blaring from his speakers, almost overpowering the hoots and hollers from the people playing strip poker at his table. The outside was already packed as well, having at least twenty people claiming the roof of the apartment building since this penthouse took up the majority of the top floor. All in all the party was a great success in his opinion. '_I should thank Tomoyo,_' his mind mused and he swept the area, finding her finally. The boy weaved through the crowd over to her friend. On his way he grabbed a Smirnoff Ice and twisted off the cap, bringing it to his lips. Syaoran took a large swig of the drink before gasping and coughing, almost spitting it all out "What the hell!?"

Sakura was behind Tomoyo, grinding her hips against her much like a guy would to the beat of the music. One hand was across her waist while the other was slipped up Tomoyo's shirt, revealing the girl's stomach and part of a red bra. "Meow!" Sakura greeted him, obviously drunk.

"They're wasted," Fujimaru, a member of Takashi's soccer team, informed him right after taking a shot of clear liquid.

Syaoran instantly went to break them apart, but paused just as Tomoyo let out a hiccup and started shaking her butt against Sakura. "Oh this is great!" Flipping out his cell phone, Syaoran took a few pictures before going over to them fully. "Tomoyo!"

"Hmmmm?" She looked at him, eyes half focused. "Oh, Syaoran!" She gave him a goofy smile.

"Meow!" Sakura called to him from behind Tomoyo happily.

So it was Sakura who was yelling 'meow' all this time?" He grinned, attempting to pull Tomoyo from her and fix her shirt.

"Nyaaaan!" Sakura proclaimed, imitating a cat again and almost falling over. Tomoyo managed to catch the girl half way down, but they still hit the floor. "Mmmm meowwww," She licked her lips and gave Tomoyo a sexy look. "Meow?" Both her arms snaked around her friend's neck and several guys turned and cheered.

"Don't think so," Syaoran hoisted Tomoyo to her feet and sat her down unsteadily before grabbing Sakura and slinging the drunken girl over his shoulder. "This one's had enough," he proclaimed, fighting his way through the people to his room. Opening the door after quickly unlocking it he walked into the dark area and closed it behind him

"We gonna have sex, nyan?" Sakura inquired as she was laid on the bed.

"Not tonight," He grinned at her as she pawed the air cutely in an attempt to entice him. "Though I will most definitely be reminding you of the offer tomorrow morning."

"Meooowwwww….."

"Good girl." He pet her on the head. "Go to sleep. Do not leave this room okay?"

"Meow…" She was already closing her eyes.

Laughing, Syaoran left the room and closed the door behind him, re-locking it. He found Tomoyo a little while later sitting down by the open window, looking out over the city. "Hey there," He sat next to her. "How many fingers?" he held up three.

Tomoyo paused moment and leaned forward to inspect the fingers closer. The move made her lose her balance and she ended up falling into his lap. "Three," She managed to answer correctly.

"Yet you're still smashed," He helped her sit up. "Get out of my lap before people start saying weird things. Tomoyo seemed to get a kick out of the thought and proceeded to giggle uncontrollably to herself. "Stay put until you sober up some." Syaoran got up slowly, trying to make sure she wouldn't fall out of the window. When he was relatively sure she was okay he went back to taking care of his guest, now by himself.

"Great party man!" Some guy Syaoran met but couldn't remember his name draped an arm over his shoulders. "Going to tell all mai buds 'bout this!"

"You do that." Syaoran let him fall down and pass out.

"Syaoran!" Takashi motioned for him to come over to the TV. "Play some!"

"What we playing?" Syaoran took the Wii remote from his friend.

"Drunken Tennis!" Someone else answered him. "Every time you miss a ball you got to drink one!"

Grinning, Syaoran got into position and flipped his remote, sending the ball over the court.

Hours passed and before long the sun started to come up, lighting Syaoran's ever empting apartment gradually. The last guest managed to stumble out the door, waving over their shoulders to the boy who was only partly sober now. "What a night," He breathed, rubbing his temples and instantly cutting off the music. He half-way scanned the living room for his friend and found her sitting at the dining room table, head down on her arms. "Tomoyo… Hey, Tomoyo you awake?"

The raven haired girl sat up slowly and looked at him with glazed eyes. "Syaoran…?"

"How sober are you?" He gently lifted her into his arms to carry her.

"Drunk as a skunk," She told him, blushing. "Let me down, I'm okay."

"No you're not." He managed to make it to the living room. "Stop squirming."

"Lemme down!" She exclaimed again, trying to get free of his grasp and ending up making them both fall onto the couch.

"What's with you?" Syaoran asked, realizing that he was starting to get a hangover from the lack of sleep.

"Sorry," Tomoyo whispered softly. While Syaoran tried to get his head to stop hurting the girl slowly moved herself so she was hugging him, resting her face against his neck. "I'm sorry…"

"Huh?" He blinked a few times, wondering what made the girl suddenly sound so sad. She repeated the phrase a few more times before he realized that he had warm drops of water rolling down his neck. "Tomoyo? What's wrong?"

"I'm a horrible person…" she sniffed a few times and gripped his shirt in her fist.

"Don't say that, you're great." Syaoran awkwardly tried to comfort the drunken girl by stroking her hair. "You got me cloths, and helped me throw a great party, even got me the food and drinks to give everyone. You're the best!"

"I'm the worst!" she argued. "I'm so jealous," Her voice broke by a hiccup. "I try to do everything I can but it still hurts…" She shifted, laying on him now and crying into his chest. "I'm jealous of Sakura for having someone to love… I'm jealous of you for having Sakura… I'm jealous of the way you hug each other…" Her sentences started breaking up again as she sobbed harder. "I just… I just…" She tried to take a breath so she could speak. "I just want to be held sometimes! I want to, to" Another hiccup. "I want to be loved too!"

"Take it easy… Breathe Tomoyo…breathe… that's better." Syaoran rubbed her back. "Sakura loves you a lot, I do too." He spoke gently to her, getting her to look up at him, scared.

"Not like that," She whispered, closing her eyes again. "I thought I was over it but, but" a small cough shook her. "When you came back I started wanting it again," Tomoyo put her forehead against his chest again and cried a moment more before continuing. "I want him to come back too, I- I want him to-to say he's sorry for m-making me wait." She felt his hands stroke her hair again and the calming effect worked a little, but her speech was still interrupted by breaths of air while she cried out on him. "I want him so b-bad!" Tomoyo's small hands gripped his shirt harder as she pushed herself against him. "I'm so jealous of you and Sakura; it makes me feel so sick with guilt!"

"Tomoyo…"

"I… I…" Her sobs slowly started to die away and her hands loosened around his cloths. "I…"

Syaoran stayed still a moment, wondering what had just happened. Soft steady breathing was against his chest and after a minute he realized that the poor girl had cried herself to sleep. Ever so slowly he slid his legs around the couch and stood up, cradling her in his arms. '_As if a drunken Sakura wasn't bad enough…_' Making his way to his bedroom he unlocked the door and gently laid her on the bed, where she instantly cuddled up to her friend. He looked at them both a moment sleeping and smiled lightly to himself. Turning, he started to make his way out of the room but a soft voice made him stop.

"Eriol..."

Syaoran stood still a moment before glancing back over his shoulder and giving Tomoyo a light smile. Now with his two girls taken care of, he grabbed a pillow and walked back into the living room and feel onto the couch to finally get some blissful sleep.


	5. I will be the one that you run to

I couldn't keep the grin off my face when I heard the flight assistant tell everyone that we would be landing shortly. My eyes drifted to the window to look at Japan a little closer. I could see the Tokyo Tower as well as other main buildings that I recalled from my childhood. The feeling was both nostalgic and bittersweet. I wasn't here to have fun and I knew that. I had flown in for a war, and my status would probably put me as a key person to target. The smile fades from my lips unconsciously as the thoughts cross my mind. My descendant was fighting with the card mistress right now, and I would make number three of the prime defense line. With more people on my side, I was sure that they would send even more skilled people to conflict us. If we were good we could stay off the news and keep everyone else from getting hurt. The idea made an image of a girl flash across my vision. No doubt she would want to be there was well to record all of it. '_I won't let you get hurt, no matter what…_' I thought as we landed. '_… Tomoyo.'_

**Whispers in the Dark V**

**By: Satashi**

The world slowly came into focus as Syaoran rejoined the world of the living. With a groan he managed to roll over on his back and bring a hand to his head. A dull pain lingered across his eyes, made worse by the light shining down on him. "Good morning!" A cheerful voice called excitedly right in front of him. After letting out a small cry and bringing his other hand to his head, Syaoran coughed and groaned again. "Here, sit up." He found himself being helped to a sitting position and a glass of water put in his hand. "Take these," Two pills were placed in his palm and the boy quickly swallowed them and chugged the water.

"Thank you," He managed out, handing the glass back to who he now saw as Sakura. "You're pretty peppy for someone who was drunk as hell last night."

"I don't get hangovers," She informed him before merrily walking back to the kitchen where she started wiping the counters down. "Tomoyo woke up a little bit ago, she's in the shower. Hope you don't mind?"

"Not really," Syaoran stood up and rubbed his left eye before looking around his apartment. "What happened here?" He was expecting to survey the damage caused by the mass of people last night but all he could see out of place were several filled garbage bags by his door and dirt on his floor.

"I cleaned," She informed him with a smile. "I like cleaning."

"You _like_ it?"

"Yup!" Sakura finished wiping the counter down and moved to the bar, where she sprayed some cleaning agent on it Syaoran didn't even remember buying. "I have everything more of less done. The outside was really easy, but I swear there were a million bottles I had to load up."

Syaoran blinked and once again scanned his apartment and then looked at the clock. From the time he gathered that he had slept about seven hours and she had to have been cleaning for at least five of them. "…Will you marry me?"

"Sure," She answered playfully. "Get me a ring and we'll talk." She finished up and walked back over to him.

"Isn't that my shirt?" He pointed at her. Sakura was wearing shorts and a semi-large black shirt that proudly proclaimed "Ninjas are greater than Pirates" on it. After getting a nod he couldn't help but grin. "Tomoyo brings you a whole fall wardrobe and you steal one of my shirts?"

"Yup," She answered him again just as Tomoyo walked into the living room.

"Hey," She greeted lightly before falling onto the couch. "I'm still tired." She had on a pair of low cut jeans that showed her panty line as well as a tight fitting shirt that revealed her stomach. "Am I cute?" She asked Syaoran when she realized he was looking at her.

"Sure, why not?" He walked around to the kitchen to get a drink.

"How did I get in your bed?" Tomoyo called out to him. "With Sakura at that?"

"I carried you, don't you remember?"

"Nuh uh, last I recall was playing a drinking game."

"So you don't remember anything? Talking to me?" He pointed at himself and got a shake of her head. "Or molesting Sakura?" He pointed over at her.

"What!?"

"Huh!?"

'_Oh this is perfect,_' he thought to himself before casually drinking his orange juice straight from the carton. "You two got down and dirty on my table. I had to drag both of you off to the bedroom."

"Oh my _god_!" Sakura's face went blood red.

"We were both dressed, Sakura," Tomoyo rolled her eyes, calling his bluff. "There's no way we did anything."

"Oh yeah?" Syaoran picked up his cell phone on his way over to her and flipped it open. "Want to bet?"

"Why do you have your camera phone?" Sakura asked, worried.

The boy got behind his friend and held the phone up to her line of vision and revealing the picture of Sakura feeling her up. "Give me that!" Tomoyo lunged for the phone but he pulled away fast enough to keep it. "Syaoran! Delete that picture! Now!"

"No way!" Leaping over the couch he got next to Sakura and showed her as well.

"Syaoran!" Sakura tried to grab like her friend had just done. "Delete that!"

"Fine, fine…" Syaoran pressed a few buttons on his phone. "But I'm keeping the video of you having sex on my bed."

"Give me that phone!"

"Hand it over!"

* * *

"We didn't really, did we?" Sakura whispered to Tomoyo as the three of them walked down the street on their way to get some food. "You know…?"

"Knowing how you get when you're drunk, I wouldn't be surprised." Tomoyo felt her cheeks color a little. "I can't believe you felt me up in front of everyone though!" Syaoran snorted and tried to cover his laugh.

"Shush, Mr. Take-pictures-before-I-save-my-friend's-dignity." Sakura puffed out her cheeks at him. "I can't believe you did that…"

"A guy can fantasize can't he?" His teasing was cut off suddenly by a strange feeling running down his spine. "Sakura?"

She nodded at him, suddenly serious. "I felt it. There's an abandoned building up ahead."

"Right." Syaoran looked over at Tomoyo. "You better split up from us or…" His words trailed off, seeing her take out a mini digital recorder from her purse and flip out a small screen on the side. "…Tomoyo…"

"Hm?" She focused in on him. "What?"

Turning to Sakura for help, Syaoran sighed when he noticed that she didn't seem to mind. "Okay. Stay out of sight."

"Of course," Tomoyo fell a few steps behind the pair as they started to walk.

"How many?" Sakura asked softly, eyes scanning the area.

Syaoran was already slipping his goggles over his eyes after expanding the magical trinket that contained them. "…Two…" He waited a moment later before continuing. "Xian, sword user, explosive master. The other is unknown." The yellow circle zipped across the lens. "They're both already in the building ahead. I guess they want to keep things on the down-low as well."

"Which means they know we're coming already." Sakura reached into her shirt and pulled her key necklace, turning it into her star wand.

Syaoran pulled a small piece of cloth from his pocket and flipped his wrist, unraveling his cloak. With a quick movement he had it attached and felt the stiff fabric fall around him. "Will you be okay?"

"Yeah. Go ahead."

Syaoran took out a talisman from his cloak and drew his sword. "Light of the gods, bend to my will!" small rainbows started to shine around him before converging together and wrapping themselves around him. "I'll take the new guy," he spoke as slowly his cloak started to turn transparent. "You go after Xian, you can handle him easily." Syaoran flipped up his hood and became nothing more than a blurred area that Sakura could see straight through. Quick footsteps came to her ears as she saw the blur move into the building.

Looking around as he ran, Syaoran realized that the building they were in had apparently been condemned a long time ago but never torn down. The ground floor was a giant empty area with a few holes in the walls and graffiti spray-painted everywhere. '_Fitting place for a brawl,_ his mind thought. The stairs were found and he ascended quickly, hopping flights almost faster than his shoes could touch the ground. Once again the yellow circle on his lens flashed at him, followed immediately by red arrows pointing to the left. Taking the turn, he emerged on the seventh floor and found his prey looking out the window. Finally his goggles received the information it needed after a closer scan of the opponent.

Name: Fyr  
Class: Sniper

Skill: ranged attacks

Nodding to himself, Syaoran crept forward slowly. When he was about half way there Fyr turned around and held out a crossbow, shooting a dart directly at the boy. Syaoran managed to move sideways so the dart only glanced off his cloak. Once hit, the light reflecting spell faded, revealing him fully. "Parlor tricks won't work on me, Wolf." He spoke, aiming his crossbow at him again. "You'll be dead before you get within ten yards of me."

Standing to his full height, Syaoran smirked. "Want to make a bet on that?"

* * *

"This is so exciting!" Tomoyo whispered, following behind Sakura as she filmed. "I just wish I made a costume for you to wear!"

Sakura had to keep herself from tripping after hearing that. "To-Tomoyo… I'm not ten anymore."

"But you'll look so pretty! You have to let me make you something!"

Letting out a sigh, she gave in to her friend. "Okay, okay. You can make it for me."

"Thank you!"

"So we meet again!" Xian's voice came to them and Tomoyo instantly turned her camera onto the Chinese man. "This time things will end quite differently," he continued. "Wolf won't be here to save you."

"I don't need to be _saved_ by anyone," Sakura informed him, already activating her favorite three fighting cards. "When I beat you here, you promise to go away?" Xian smirked to himself and made a beckoning motion with his hand. "Ooooooh, that does it!" Sakura gripped her wand and prepared to walk forward.

"Sakura, wait!" Tomoyo called to her, grabbing her shoulder. "There are wires all over the floor, look!" She held out her camera so her friend could look at the small flip out screen. Thanks to the light reflecting on the strings, the camera's lens made them glow so they could be seen.

"High quality picture," Sakura chuckled nervously. _'Leave it to Tomoyo to have a camera pick up things I can't even see…_'

"Your friend saved you," Xian taunted. "Make one wrong step and…" With a flip of his wrist he sent a small throwing dagger to the ground, where it cut a thread. Instantly a vertical blast shot up from the ground and several small pieces of metal rained down. "Scatter bombs aren't deadly in themselves, but the shrapnel will hurt no matter what."

Sakura smirked at him, amused. "So you think something like that can stop the Mistress of the Cards?" Twirling her wand, Sakura activated her all-time favorite card. Two angel wings flared out behind her dramatically, slinging feathers everywhere around them. Flapping once, Sakura hovered above the ground and over the trip wires.

"Interesting," Xian hopped expertly around the room until he was standing in the middle. "How long can you avoid them, I wonder?"

"The question is, can _you_ avoid them?" Sakura pointed her finger. "Mist." The word caused the floor to suddenly dampen. Slowly a thick mist rose to almost knee-length on the man. "Sword." Sakura's wand instantly became her short rapier. Already infused with the Fight, Power, and Dash cards, Sakura flared forward and clashed blades with the man.

* * *

Syaoran danced around the room, avoiding the bolts being shot at him narrowly. The circle on his lens flashed at him again, giving him enough time to leap to the side to dodge another shot. '_That's eight!_' His mind screamed and Syaoran darted forward. Fyr looked surprised at him a moment before smirking and aiming once more. The boy dropped to the ground and rolled, saved only by a few inches.

"Nice thought, but my auto-crossbow holds more than the average one." Fyr shot twice more, tacking the male's cloak to the ground.

"So it would seem," Syaoran grabbed his cloak and pulled, ripping it slightly to free the fabric. "You'll pay for tearing my cloths."

"Heh." Fyr slid a long, thin case up the handle of the crossbow, reloading it.

'_Why is he using that instead of a gun_?' Syaoran eyed the weapon, watching the tip of it so he could tell where the bolt would fire. '_It doesn't make any sense!_'

"Ice arrow!" Fyr waved his hand over the crossbow, turning it blue. Several bolts shot forward, making Syaoran roll and lunge out of the way. When he landed, his balance was instantly compromised and he fell to the ground, sliding on the ice that hadn't been there moments before.

Grunting, Syaoran hand no choice but to wrap his cloak around himself and take three shots directly. "That hurt," Syaoran spat, pulling the cloak away from his body and revealing the bolts stuck in him partly. "I haven't had anything piece my armor in a long time," he admitted, grabbing the freezing cold projectiles and pulling them out. "I'd hate to see what a shot that wasn't dampened would do."

Fyr reloaded his weapon before speaking. "I'll admit: no one has ever survived being shot, no matter the armor." When done, he aimed again. "I'll have to up the odds, lest you win the bet." Once again his hand waved over the crossbow. "Lightning arrows!"

* * *

Sakura twirled her body around and flapped her wings to keep herself airborne. Xian had taken to leaping across the room and was currently throwing daggers down at the floor to trip the wires set up by him and spray the metal shards upwards at the flying girl. "Shot!" Sakura called out, changing her sword to a bow and flying backwards. "Twin!" She let go of the string and the arrow flew forward, splitting once and then doubling several times over. Xian's eyes widened slightly at the sudden barrage launched at him. In mid leap, he had no choice but to cover his face and grunt in pain as several arrows met their mark. The force caused his body to fall backwards and land roughly. Sakura watched the explosion where the man fell and was glad that her mist was covering the floor.

"Tomoyo, let's find Syaoran." She whispered the words before flying over to her friend.

"This isn't over!" Xian screamed, standing up and glaring. Sakura turned instantly, seeing his bleeding figure hold up a device. "If I'm going down, you're coming with me!"

* * *

Syaoran's head jerked to the side when the sudden loud explosion rocked the building. "What in the hell!?" Rubble started to fall around him and the floor shook as the building titled.

"That fool!" Fyr looked up at the ceiling, which was starting to crumble.

"Sakura!" Syaoran turned on his heels and ran in the direction of the noise. No sooner than he had turned his back did he catch a bolt on his shoulder. "Dammit, Fyr!" Syaoran roared around and pointed his sword. "I don't have time!" Energy focused into his blade a moment before rocketing out and catching the man off guard in the chest. "We'll finish this later!" Once again he turned and ran, leaving the temporarily stunned man on his own.

The building started to cave in around him, making the young man jump through holes in the floor and ceiling to get to where his goggles were leading him. After leaping into one of the higher floors he heard his name being called. "Over here! Syaoran!" Turning to the voice, he ran over to his two friends.

"What's going on!?" Syaoran demanded over the roaring of twisting metal.

"The person Sakura was fighting blew up a bomb!" Tomoyo screamed back at him. "The building's going to collapse any moment!"

To prove her point, the floor under the trio decided to rip apart upwards, forcing them apart. "Syaoran!" Sakura grabbed the boy and pulled him into the air.

Tomoyo felt the wind around her a moment before her mind realized what exactly she was seeing. As if in slow motion the image of her friends was robbed from her, replaced by the side of the building. When the floor lunged, it had sent her out of the window. Three floors were free fallen before Sakura's body leapt from the hole in the wall and reached down for her. Tomoyo reached her hand upward in a blind panic, knowing that even with the fly card there was no way to reach her before she hit the ground. '_Am I going to die?_' her mind asked herself as tears formed. Sakura was screaming her name out desperately, but she seemed to be getting farther away instead of closer…

"Got you!" A new voice came instantly and Tomoyo felt herself shift to the side as someone embraced her. The male hit the side of the building feet first and pushed off of it. One hand wrapped around her waist and held her almost painfully close as the other formed a type of staff. "Slow fall!" He called out quickly. She saw a glow come from under them and when she looked a pattern flashed across her memories.

It was Clow Reed's magical circle.

The pair landed softly but she was once again picked up and carried in both arms of the male who had saved her. Tomoyo watched over his shoulder as the building finally gave out and crumbled. "Sakura!" She finally called out when she got her thoughts straight. "Syaoran!"

"They're fine," The man told her, slowing down and panting. "Are you okay?" He sat the girl on the ground and kneeled in front of her. "Not hurt are you?" Tomoyo finally looked at the person who had saved her, but found that her voice had abandoned her. "Are you okay?" He asked again, voice now worried. "Tomoyo?"

"E…Er….i…" Tomoyo's tongue couldn't seem to say the simple word.

"Oh Gods I thought we were going to die!" Syaoran coughed as Sakura sat him down on the grass before flapping her wings and landing herself. "Dramatic entrance you made there, sure put mine to shame." He didn't seem to have any trouble greeting the new comer. "Took your damn time didn't you?"

"Sorry about that," The man stood and pushed up his glasses with one finger. "Hard to get a plane ticket with a fake ID. Thought it would be best if no one knew who I was and why I was coming to Japan so suddenly."

"Eriol!" Sakura leapt into the boy's arms and hugged him. "It's been years!"

Eriol laughed and hugged Sakura back. "So sorry. I should have visited, I know." He swept a hand through his short blue hair.

"Eriol…" Tomoyo finally found her words and she swallowed thickly after managing to get it out.

"Tomoyo," He greeted her back, offering his hand to help her stand. Taking it, she was lifted to her feet and fell against his chest when she realized her ankle was sprained. "Thank you…" Her hands shook lightly as she rested against his chest.

"I'll carry you," He offered, scooping her up to get the girl off her injured foot.

"Thank you…" Tomoyo spoke the words again as she looked up at him shyly, still in shock. "Welcome…back…"

"Appreciate it…" Eriol looked down at her and smiled. "I'm so sorry I made you wait."

Not being able to help it anymore, Tomoyo threw her arms around him and cried into his shoulder. "Eriol! It's really you! It's really, really you! You came back!"

The boy looked a little shocked and glanced over at Sakura and Syaoran for help. "Syaoran's place is close by," the female offered. "I guess we'll go there and catch up on things?"

Eriol nodded and looked at Syaoran, who had a smirk on his face. "Just hold her," he mouthed over to him silently and got a nod. The blue haired boy shifted Tomoyo and hugged her close, getting a much appreciated response.

"Let's go then, before the police arrive." Sakura turned and put her hand on Syaoran's back to get him to walk too, but quickly withdrew it when he yelped out in pain. "Syaoran!? Syaoran what's wrong!?"

"A bolt…" Syaoran muttered, using one arm to reach behind himself, under his cloak, and rip the projectile from his back. "Forgot I was hit…" He threw the bloody metal stick to the ground.

"Forgot!?" Sakura screamed, franticly undoing the latch to take off the cape. "How do you forget you were _shot_!?"

"Well a building blowing up around you pales in comparison," he retorted sarcastically, gritting his teeth as his friend observed him.

"You're bleeding horribly!"

"Gee, thanks. You look swell too." Syaoran closed his eyes. "Amazing how it hurts now but I didn't even feel it a moment ago…"

"You idiot!" Sakura yelled at him. "Don't hide things like this from me!"

"Some things never change, do they?" Eriol asked, observing the two.

"Nuh-uh," Tomoyo whispered to him. "Some things never change…" She held him tighter. "Some things stay…Even after several years…"

* * *

"And that's the story," Syaoran finished up, flipping the stir-fry in a large wok. Currently he was in the kitchen, cooking in front of the bar where his three guests were sitting. "Sorry to get you involved as well, Eriol."

"It's me who should be apologizing." Eriol shook his head lightly. "All of this is my fault for making the cards."

"Eriol!" Sakura scolded him. "I've told you not to say that!"

"Clow is Clow," Tomoyo added in. "Eriol is Eriol."

"…Thanks." Eriol looked at the food he was just given. "A real Chinese cooked meal, huh? Looks good."

"Syaoran's a kick butt chef," Sakura giggled. "Although he's an idiot who forgets he has a crossbow bolt stuck in his back sometimes."

"Will you come off that?" The boy gave Sakura some food despite his protest. "It doesn't hurt at all now."

"Where you going to stay at?" Tomoyo asked the blue haired boy as the other two had a small argument with each other.

"I'll have to look for a place tomorrow," Eriol ate slowly as he thought. "I highly doubt the house I used to have is available, if it's even still there. Since I came alone I suppose an apartment or rental house would be fine."

"So you need a place to crash for the night?" Syaoran interrupted. "You can stay-"

"At my house," Tomoyo cut him off, face coloring lightly. "Since, um, Syaoran doesn't have another bed and I'm sure you don't want to sleep together." Sakura opened her mouth to say something but found Tomoyo pinching her leg so she closed it again, ruefully rubbing the spot.

"But I couldn't! A guy and a girl staying together under one roof…"

"Oh come _on_!" Syaoran talked with his mouthful, getting a glare from his female friend. "You're in the twenty-first century here, not ancient times! It's perfectly normal, hell Sakura stays over here almost every other night."

"Seeing as how you've been here, what, two weeks?" Tomoyo teased him. "Really, Eriol, stay with me. Please?"

"…Okay." His cheeks colored a little, a fact that made Tomoyo quite happy to see.

Dinner was finished shortly and after a few hours of catching up while playing Mario Party on the Wii, Tomoyo let out a long yawn and decided to call it a day. "Let's head home," She told the short haired male sleepily. "I didn't get much rest last night and I'm kind of beat after today."

"Of course," Eriol stood and helped her up. "Your car here?"

"Yes," Tomoyo smiled, looking over at Syaoran as if to remind him of their several year old bet.

"Anyway!" Syaoran quickly changed the subject. "I think I'm going to skip school tomorrow to recharge my magic. Want to be in top form if anything should happen."

"Sounds like a plan," Sakura agreed, standing up to follow her friends to the door where she started slipping on her shoes.

Tomoyo caught Syaoran's eyes and pointed to Sakura, mouthing out 'ask her to stay!' at him. The boy blinked at her but still wrapped one arm around Sakura's stomach and pulled her back, causing her to drop her shoes. "Not going to stay?" He inquired when she gave him a confused look.

"I've been over so much lately; I don't want to be a bother…"

"See you guys later," Tomoyo waved at them lightly before leading Eriol out the door. "I'll call you tomorrow." The boy waved over his shoulder and a moment later they were separated from the other couple.

"You really don't mind?"

"No one is at your house anyway right? No point in us both being lonely now is there?" Syaoran turned and walked back into his living room, making his way over to his sleeping quarters. "I'm going to take a shower."

"Save me some hot water?"

"Maybe," Syaoran winked at her as he slung his cloths over his shoulder and walked into the bathroom.

* * *

A quick look at the clock told the brown haired boy that it was well past one in the morning and his body could feel it. With a loud yawn he clicked off his TV and went to his bedroom, hearing Sakura finally cut off the water on her hour long shower. Sleepily he changed into pajama pants and took off his shirt. The sight that greeted him in the mirror made the boy sigh out ruefully. Three spots on his front were blue and black, obviously having been struck hard by something. With a light turn he made his back face the mirror and groaned out verbally when he saw the light trace if blood still coming from the wound on his shoulder.

"Syaoran!" The voice made the boy jump lightly and whip around to see who had just yelled at him. "Are you okay?" quickly Sakura ran over to him and inspected the wound. "You said it wasn't anything!"

"It's not," He insisted, looking away lightly since Sakura was clad in nothing but a towel at the moment.

"It is!" Sakura lead him over to the bed, where she made him sit down. "Now stay here and…Syaoran!"

"What!?" He looked shocked at her sudden outbreak.

"You didn't tell me you were hurt on your chest too…" Sakura's voice lost its sharp tone and became gentler. "When you get hurt, I want to know..."

"Sorry," He actually meant it this time and looked down and over to the side to keep from seeing her eyes. "I will for now on, I promise."

"Promise, promise?"

"Yeah. Promise , promise, promise." Syaoran felt his lips twitch up to a grin. "Now get dressed before my eyes start to wonder."

"You won't look, you're too timid."

"Want to bet on that?" Syaoran turned back towards her. "Try me."

"Okay, I will." Sakura got right in front of him and put her forehead against his. "Let's see, shy boy." She met Syaoran's eyes with her own and then gripped her towel with both hands and spread them apart, making it look more like a cape now.

Syaoran's eyes widened slightly. '_She's naked…_' His mind told him quickly. '_Look you fool!_' Swallowing thickly, he forced his eyes to stay on hers. '_Look, you know you want to! See? She's even still wet from her shower. Hello Syaoran, naked female body RIGHT in your face!' _The boy smirked at her amused expression.

Sakura pouted at him after a moment. "I see, you don't even find me attractive!"

"I do too!" He quickly stammered out, losing his concentration and immediately found his eyes looking downwards. "Hey! You had cloths on under the towel!"

"You did look you pervert!" Sakura declared, pointing at him, clad in her bra and panties. "Like I'd walk in here in only a towel!"

"You're heartless!" Syaoran reached up and tickled her sides, getting a happy squeal.

"Stop it!" Sakura tried to pull away but ended up tripping and falling on top of him, pressing him to the bed. "Ah, sorry, did that hurt?"

"Nuh uh," He looked at her, blushing darkly at the contact of their skin.

"Hey…Syaoran…?" She didn't make any move to pull away from him.

"Yes, Sakura…?"

"About all those years ago…I…"

"…What?"

Sakura closed her eyes and swallowed. "No, nothing." Opening them back, she gave him a soft smile. "I'll tell you later okay?"

"Now it'll bug me."

"Here's a small hint." With a slight motion, she slid her body against him and kissed his cheek. "A goodnight kiss."

"A kiss is on the lips," He spoke before even thinking about the words.

Taking it as a request, Sakura leaned forward again and gently flecked his lips. "There…" She looked into his eye, but couldn't keep the happy expression off her face. "A real goodnight kiss."

"As much as I want to sleep like this, I think we'll get a cold if we don't get under the covers." He said the first thing that came to his mind so he wouldn't stammer over his words. His brain had temporarily stopped working properly after the surprise kiss he just received.

"Okay," Sakura crawled off him and slid under the covers, giving him a cute look. "Bring me a shirt, please? A long one?"

Even if he wanted to, Syaoran couldn't keep the amused look off his face. "Okay."


	6. My love is a burning, consuming fire

The sound of a bell chiming made me open my eyes slowly. The town beneath me was lit by sparkling lights from windows and the cars driving by on the far off street below. In the back of my mind I knew that I was flying but currently I didn't find that odd. In fact, things were becoming more familiar and nostalgic. Tokyo Tower came into my view and I realized that I was seeing a premonition, just as I had all those years back whenever something life-changing was about to happen to me. My body started flying lower and before I knew it, I was standing on a rooftop. Eriol and Tomoyo were standing there as well, each looking away at nothing in particular. I spotted myself a few paces away, sitting on the ground and clutching something.

I walked forward to my future self, but I stopped before I could reach her. Sakura threw back her head in a silent scream and starting shaking it harshly, slinging tears. Confused as to why I was doing this, I started to walk forward again, but Eriol beat me to it. Kneeling, he put both arms on my future self's shoulders and spoke to her. Although I had no sound, I could tell that she didn't like what he was saying. Sakura shook her head again and screamed once more, this time revealing blood splashed on her face from whatever she was holding.

**Whispers in the Dark VI**

**By: Satashi**

Sakura's eyes snapped open and air flooded her lungs in a large gasp. Panicking, her pupils darted across the area, trying to figure out where she was. Several moments passed before her dream paralysis faded and she was able to finally realize that she was awake. Free from the confused state, she managed to pull herself up to a sitting position and bring a hand to her face. Tears stained her cheeks, being smeared by her hand as she rubbed them away. Taking another deep breath, she looked to the side and saw Syaoran asleep next to her, peacefully breathing steadily with his back facing her. '_Oh god…'_ Once again she placed her face into both her hands and took a steadying breath. When she was ready to pull back she noticed that it was apparently morning already. "I need a shower," She spoke to herself, wanting to wash away the dream that she just had.

"You took a shower last night," Syaoran answered her groggily, still half asleep.

"Did I wake you?"

"Not really," He yawned and pulled the pillow up closer under his head. "I'm not getting up, though."

"Don't. Sleep longer." Sakura slid out of the bed and rooted through the dresser to get some cloths, smiling lightly as she realized that she was probably going to leave all of her new wardrobe over at the apartment. Her hand reached for a red shirt, but the color made her mind flashback to the dream. Suppressing a shiver, Sakura quickly plucked a random shirt and made her way to the bathroom.

When Syaoran awoke next, he heard his hair dryer blaring from the bathroom. Sitting up gently, he stretched out and groaned at his sore muscles. Looking down, he let out a sigh. Somewhere in the night he had managed to make his wounds bleed and stained his sheets. "Great," he muttered, hopping out of bed and ripping the covers in a tangled mess on the floor. "I just bought those too." A sudden blaring of music made him turn to the small pink flip phone on his nightstand.

"Syaoran, can you get that?" Sakura called form the bathroom. "It's probably Tomoyo." The hairdryer resumed and Syaoran crawled across the bed to reach what he now considered 'Sakura's side' of the bed.

"Hello," He greeted the caller.

"Who the hell is this?" A male's voice demanded.

"What? Don't be demanding people's names before you give your own!" He challenged back, wondering what male had Sakura's number. His mind flashed back to Keith and his already dark mood just got worse.

"Where is Sakura?" The voice demanded of him.

"She's drying her hair," Syaoran informed him. "She just got out of my shower!"

"What the _hell_ is she doing in the shower!?"

"Getting clean, you moron!" Syaoran smirked. "She obviously wanted to take one after last night." He heard the door open and Sakura walked out, fixing her fluffy pink shirt.

"So help me when I find out who this is you're dead! Now give my little sister the phone right now!!"

Syaoran suddenly went cold. Swallowing thickly, he looked at Sakura who had a confused look. "…Touya-san?"

"So you do know who this is! Put my sister on the phone!"

"Its… for you…" Syaoran reached out the phone to her, face pale.

* * *

"I'm _not_ going!" Syaoran stated firmly as he walked through his living room with Sakura close on his heels. "No way, no how!"

"Syaoran! You have to!" Sakura kept following him, eventually running him out the dining room window and onto the roof. "I need you there!"

"After having my life threatened in every single way? Nuh uh!" Syaoran hopped up to the peak of the slanted roof and looked out over the city.

"Syaoran!" Sakura gracefully followed him.

"Hey, nice view."

"Yeah it really is," She looked out over the town. "The wind feels good too and… Don't change the subject!" She felt like hitting him. "Please! Come home with me!"

"When Touya-san sees me, he'll kill me!"

"He can't kill you, Yue has all his power."

"Then Yue will kill me! And that plush toy will be back too won't he? After Yue kills me, and Touya kills me, HE'LL kill me!"

"Kero-chan won't hurt you," She insisted, leaving out the other two. "He'll be too happy to stay with me again."

"What, does he swap places or something?"

"Yeah," Sakura nodded. "He stays with me a lot but he went to stay with my brother and Yukito-san the past little bit…didn't you find it odd that he wasn't around?"

"I just assumed he was at your house."

"Come on, Syaoran!" Sakura stomped her foot. "Yue and Kero-chan both know I have been using cards more than just in practice. They'll want an explanation!"

Sighing in defeat, he hung his head. "Okay. _Okay!_ I'll come to dinner and explain everything."

"Thank you!" She hugged him tightly, getting a yelp of pain. "Oh! I'm so sorry!" She looked at his chest, which had dried blood on it. "Go take a shower, I'll run to the store and get a first aid kit so we can properly treat you."

"I'll be fine,"

"Syaoran."

Just the way she said his name cut off any argument from him. "… Okay. Thank you."

* * *

"Hold still," Sakura complained, scooping up the boy's hair. "If you would have let me dry it for you, it wouldn't do that."

"I, ow, don't like people messing with my hair." He closed one eye as he felt another one of his precious hairs be plucked from the abuse Sakura was giving it. "Let me do it."

"You tried; you can't raise your arms back enough." She told him with an amused tone. "If you don't want it pulled wet then let me dry it."

"Ugh, fine." He heard a happy squeal behind him as Sakura suddenly ran off to get the hair blower. "Christ, what _is_ it with girls and wanting to touch my hair?"

"If you don't like it, cut it off." Sakura sat behind him again and looked for an outlet a moment before cutting on the dryer and starting to brush his hair. The boy relented to her and sat patently as she styled it for him, ending up putting it in a high ponytail and securing it there with a emerald green scrunchie that she just so happen to be wearing the other day. "There, now I can work." She arranged his ponytail so it was out of her way and began to treat the wounds on him. "I swear, you fuss over your hair more than I do mine, and that's bad."

"Yeah, yeah." A sudden knocking came to his ears and he looked at the door. "It's open!" After a moment two people came into view. Tomoyo had on white jeans and a dark lavender long sleeved shirt, actually matching Eriol's blackish blue short sleeved T-shirt. "Hey guys," He greeted. "What do you want to do today?"

"I don't know, maybe pitch a little?"

"Pitch?" Syaoran blinked at Eriol.

"Yeah. Underhanded right?" He pointed at his high ponytail. "You are on a girl's softball team aren't you?"

"Why you-!" Syaoran made a move to lung at the boy making fun of his hair, but found that he couldn't quite make it with Sakura looping the bandages across his shoulder and chest.

"There," Sakura told him finally. "Fixed. I'll go get your shirt." Standing, Sakura made her way over to the bedroom, meeting Tomoyo half way. "My, you sure look happy today." Leaning forward, she smiled. "You're practically glowing!" She followed Tomoyo's eyes over to Eriol, who looked like he had a faint trace of blush on his face. "Oh my _god_!" She suddenly whispered, hopping in place. "You _didn't_!?" After receiving a quick nod, Sakura grabbed her wrist and pulled her into Syaoran's bedroom and closed the door. "Details!" she squealed happily in a whisper

"What are they whispering about?" Syaoran blinked, finally standing and testing how tight the bandages are.

"I hope it isn't what I think it is…" Eriol muttered, kicking off his shoes and getting a sharp hiss for it. "What the!?" The man leapt to the side. "You have a cat?"

"No?" Syaoran walked over to him and blinked. "That's the stray that hangs out around here; I wonder how he got in?" Kneeling, he made a beckoning motion to the scared kitten. "Come here… I won't hurt you…"

The kitten arched its back and hissed at Syaoran, backing away slowly. "Don't think it likes you," Eriol commented, walking around to cut off the kitten's escape path. "Try and scare it to me, I'll catch it." Syaoran nodded and took a step forward. Instantly the kitten darted to the side and towards Eriol, who grabbed it but had to let go when he received several claws into his skin. "Ow! Those claws are sharp for being such a little thing!" Shaking his hand lightly, he grimaced at the small beads of blood coming from the marks. "Here's hoping he doesn't have any disease…"

"It ran behind my entertainment center." Syaoran grumbled, lying on the floor, looking. "Man there's no way to get behind it."

"Pull it out?"

"If something fell, it'd kill the darn thing." Syaoran sat on the floor and thought. "We could try and lure it out with some food?"

"Not a chance it would come out while we're both here."

"Scare it out?"

"With what?"

"Good point." Syaoran put his chin on his palm. "Well damn." The two boys looked at the small kitten through the glass shelves for almost three minutes before the animal decided to curl up in a ball and get some sleep. Taking the chance, Syaoran reached his hand slowly behind the center to grab it but was only rewarded with a slashed hand. "Ow! Little thing is packing isn't he!?"

"What's the trouble?" Tomoyo asked, finally coming back with Sakura.

"The little kitten that always hangs around the building somehow found its way in and ironically ended up here."

"So wait, there's a cat in here?" Sakura leaned over the boy and looked. "Oh wow, it's Kaze!"

"Kaze?" Syaoran blinked.

"Yeah, isn't it fitting? He looks like his fur was blown in the wind and never settled back." She pointed to the sleeping gray and white kitten. "I saw him a lot when I started coming over so I thought he could use a name."

"Well how are we going to get him out?"

"Just wait it out. He'll eventually come out for food." Tomoyo sat next to Eriol and took his hand in hers.

Syaoran noticed this and pointed at their interlaced fingers. "You guys dating already or something?"

"Something like that," Eriol grinned lightly.

"Yes we are," Tomoyo replied at the same time.

The blue haired boy noticed that Sakura was looking at him so he met her eyes and received the biggest grin he'd ever remembered seeing. '_She told her everything,_' his mind realized. Blushing horribly, he looked down at the floor and halfly listened to Syaoran beg the cat to come out.

* * *

"Stop being so nervous!" Sakura whispered to her friend as they walked down the street. "You're coming over for dinner, not lining up at the shooting gallery."

"Same difference," Syaoran groaned, rounding the corner and looking at Sakura's house. "This is it isn't it?"

"You remembered," She seemed pleased at the thought. "You haven't been here in almost seven years have you?"

"Nuh uh," Any farther words were cut off as the door suddenly bound open and what looked like an armored Lion bound out, tackling Sakura.

"Sakura!" A thick Osaka accent came up as the lion nuzzled her. "I've missed you!"

"Kero-chan, someone could see you!" Sakura hugged him back, despite protesting. "I've missed you too!" She gave him another hug and a small kiss on his nose before turning her head and pointing. "You remember Syaoran right?"

"Ah, the brat's back? I thought I heard Touya mention that."

"Who you calling a brat, you over grown stuffed animal!?" Kero roared back at him, making Syaoran take a step back. "Hey, ease up will you? A 'nice to see you' would work wonders."

Kero smirked and padded over to him. "You've grown up a lot I see. Lots of magical power radiating from you… Although…" Kero hopped up on his hind legs and pinned the boy against the houses gate and glared into his eyes. "Your right eye is-"

"Kero-chan! Don't pin him!" Sakura pulled him back and pet him a few times. "Are Yukito-san and my brother here too or did you come ahead?"

"We're here." Touya's voice floated over to them from his place leaning against the doorframe. "Welcome home, Sakura."

"You too!" The teenage girl ran over to him and tackled the older boy in a hug. "Haven't seen you in almost a month." When she let go, Sakura immediately hugged Yukito as well. "And you, Yukito-san!"

Syaoran stood at the bottom of the stairs, watching with a slight smile on his face. When Yukito let go of Sakura, he noticed him for the first time and called out his greeting. "Syaoran-san, it's been a while."

"Ah," He agreed, walking up and shaking his hand. "You look good."

"You too, been working out I see?"

"You could say that," His eyes turned to Touya, who was glaring. Apparently he hadn't told the others about his comment of Sakura being in his shower that morning. "Uh, Hello Touya-san."

When he didn't reply back, Sakura discreetly stomped on his foot and hissed up at him. "Hello, brat." He managed out, which was good enough for his little sister.

"Well then!" Sakura clapped her hands together in front of herself. "Let's all go inside and I'll make us a great dinner and we can talk about things."

* * *

"And that brings us to the present," Syaoran finished finally, drinking from his glass to avoid the looks on him.

"So you're the reason that building on the news blew up," Yukito thought aloud.

"So you're the reason my little sister is in danger again!" Touya snarled at him.

"Brother!" Sakura kicked him under the table, making him wince, but back down none the less. "If anything this is my fault for opening the book years ago!"

"Then let's blame it on Kero for sleeping," Yukito pet the large lion on the head to show that it was a joke. "But my other self wishes to say something as well…" Without waiting for a reply, he stood and backed away from the table, wings erupting from his back. Sakura, being used to this since she trained her magic with him, didn't seem effected by the sudden change. Touya however let out a startled gasp, being only his third or fourth time to actually witness the transformation. "Salutations," Yue spoke, voice calm and collected. "Syaoran, I extend my welcome to you being back."

"Thank you," Syaoran nodded at him.

"So you have been sent to protect my card mistress?" Yue sat back down after folding his wings to keep them out of the way.

"I volunteered," He corrected him. "They were originally going to send 'Strider' but he refused to leave Hong Kong. Has too much keeping him there, and he's not really part of the government."

"A mercenary?"

"More like a powerful rebel," Syaoran smiled lightly at the words, one hand subconsciously reaching to stroke his hair. "He's stronger than me, but I didn't want anyone else to be the one to protect Princess."

"Princess!?" Touya screamed, getting another kick under the table.

"It's my pet name, _deal_ with it." Sakura glared, talking in a harsh whisper before giving the other three people at the table and happy look. "Oh nothing, don't mind us!"

"So Eriol is back as well," Kero mused, thinking aloud. "When we felt his aura while you were using cards Yue and I decided to come back right away."

"Surprising to say the least," Touya added in, looking over at them. "They both just suddenly flat out demanded for me to come home this week. Classes are cancelled as it is for holiday. Speaking of, you skipped school today, Sakura?"

"Long story," Sakura scratched the back of her head. "My grades are high enough; even if I fail a majority of the rest of the test I'll still pass. This is more important."

"We won't miss much," Syaoran added in after seeing the disapproving look on the other's faces. A sudden yawn came over him and one hand reached up to rub his left eye. "Been a long day. Thanks for the dinner Sakura; I should probably be getting back home."

"Eh!? You can't go, if you're attacked at night while you're tired it'll be dangerous. Stay here!"

"Oh he's not staying in my house!" Touya instantly protested.

"Its _dad's_ house," She reminded him. "And since you moved out and I haven't, it's more my call anyway on if he can stay or not, and I say he's going to stay with me tonight."

"Ugh, fine. He and Yuki can share the guest room."

"He's going to sleep in my room," Sakura declared, making Syaoran almost choke on his drink.

"What!?" Touya shook his head. "Oh no he's not!"

"Why!? Yukito-san always stays with you!"

"That's different!"

"How so!?"

"It just _is_!"

Sakura crossed her arms and looked over at Yue, who didn't seem to have an opinion. "I'm already feeling rather tired myself," Reaching over, she took Syaoran's wrist and guided him to his feet. "Sorry but can you clean up since I cooked? Thanks." With that, she pulled the boy out of the room and started to lead him upstairs. "Kero-chan, we can catch up tomorrow, right now I just want to sleep."

"Wow, wrapped around your little finger much?" Syaoran looked over his shoulder, surprised that no one was following them.

Giggling, Sakura opened her bedroom door and motioned him inside. "Don't worry; my brother is just looking out for me." Quickly grabbing some of her cloths, she tossed them all into her open closet before closing the door and laughing nervously. "Please excuse the mess."

"For someone who is a neat-freak, you sure let loose in your own room," Syaoran held up a skimpy nightgown and let out a wolf-whistle.

Blushing darkly, Sakura ran over to him and grabbed the fabric and turned her back on him. "I've been cleaning _your_ place the past month so I haven't had time to do any here." Her gaze went upwards as she thought. "Wow has it been that long? Dad should be back this week. I'm so glad he won't have to go out anymore until next year!"

"Get lonely?" Syaoran sat on her bed and smiled when Sakura sat down next to him, purposely touching the boy with her side.

"A little bit, yes…" She looked over and up at him. "But it hasn't been so bad since you've come back. Thanks for letting me stay over at your place so much."

"Hey, anytime. You have a key, it's our place."

"Really mean it?"

"Oh come on, we've been through that before." He grinned at her. Sakura looked down, face lightly tinted. After a moment she looked back over at him and opened her mouth to say something but suddenly paused and looked at the wall. "What is it?" Syaoran asked in a whisper.

"Through," Sakura held up a card and the wall became transparent to them. Touya was on his knees with a glass to the wall and his ear on the other end. Yukito was trying to make him stop, but paused himself and looked at the wall, squinting. A moment later he waved sheepishly. "Guess he can see the card's power too, unlike my brother…" smirking, Sakura crawled over the bed and over to the wall. "Well if you want to hear something…" Slowly she took a large intake of breath before yelling right at the spot where Touya was eavesdropping. "Oh god Syaoran right there! Harder! Harder!"

"Sakura!" Syaoran dived over to her and clamped his hand over her mouth, stifling her insane laughter as Touya fell back, shocked. "Christ, he's _really_ going to kill me!"

"My doors locked," She grinned up at him as the through card's power faded and the beating on her door started. "He shouldn't have been listening."

"Yeah but still…"

Sakura gave the boy a light smile before closing one eye. "Turn around while I change for bed?"

"Um, yeah," Syaoran did as he was told and faced the wall, hearing Sakura use her voice card to soundproof the room and make the beating of the door completely silent. "You use your cards for a lot of things?"

"Mmhmm," Sakura nodded to herself even though he wasn't looking at her. "I use one a day at least I'm sure. I've even used Bubbles, watery, and windy to take a shower when Tomoyo and I went camping a while ago." Reaching for a long shirt, her hand paused a moment and her eyes went over to the boy. Making a quick decision, she instead opted to pick up her lacy nightgown that Syaoran had found earlier and slipped it on. After adjusting the spaghetti straps over her shoulder she made sure that the transparent parts of it didn't reveal anything too excessive before turning to him. "Okay you can look now."

Syaoran nodded and turned around slowly. When he caught sight of her his mouth dropped and his hand instantly went to his face. "Oh my god, I think my nose is bleeding…"

"Too much?" Sakura posed for him playfully then turned so he could see the back side as well. "Tomoyo made it."

"No….No, I like it…" Turning away, he spoke facing away from her. "Though I don't think you should wear it while I'm sleeping in the same room as you…"

"Why?"

"You know why!" He turned to her and backed off when he noticed that her face was now close to his.

"You're so much fun," She accused, reaching up and touching his nose. A small yawn over took her body and she found herself stretching out. "Sorry, I don't have any cloths for you to change into."

"It's okay," Syaoran got off the bed and cut off the lights. "Give me a sheet or something so you won't wake up to the sight of me in my boxers?"

"I've seen you in your boxers plenty of times. Come on, get in bed."

"But your bed is too small for-"

"I'm not going to let you sleep on the floor, now come on." Sakura reached out in the dark and found his arm, pulling him and making the boy stumble and fall on top of her. "Kya!"

"Sorry…" Syaoran looked down, seeing a faint outline of Sakura in the dark. "Didn't mean to pin you down…"

"It's not pinning if the girl is willing," She teased.

Syaoran smirked and leaned down so their foreheads were touching. "That won't work on me."

"Oh?" Sakura giggled. "Rather me not tease you?"

"It's okay, I don't mind." He chucked to himself before lying next to her. Sakura turned on her side so their backs were touching before he spoke again. "Have enough room?"

"Plenty," She yawned out. "Sweet dreams, Syao-chan."

"Oi!"

"You have a pet name for me, I get one for you."

"… Okay. Sweet dreams, Princess."

* * *

Sakura found herself falling slowly onto a rooftop over the city of Tokyo. Lights from the tower illuminated the night sky, giving her enough visibility to make out her surroundings. As she landed Sakura looked around to see what was going on and why she was where she was. A bell chime revealed to her that she was seeing her dream again, a fact nailed home when she saw her future self screaming and shaking her head. '_What's going on_!?' her mind demanded as she watched.

Eriol ran over to Sakura's future self to try and comfort her but the girl only screamed more, frantically shaking her head. Tomoyo joined them and hugged the other girl, getting blood smeared across her cloths as well. The dreaming Sakura took a few steps forward, scared at seeing herself still screaming while desperately clutching Tomoyo now. Her mouth was open wide in a long silent scream as tears poured down her face and sobs racked her body. The second bell chime came, catching her attention as she scrambled forward to see what was bleeding. '_Am I hurt?_' her mind wondered. '_One of them hurt? What!?_' She saw herself scream again, reaching her hand out to pull Tomoyo closer and revealing that it too was covered in the dark red color of drying blood.

* * *

Sakura's mouth took a sharp intake of air as she awoke, once again frozen in fear and confusion. Seconds passed before her mind recalled that she was in her room and not outside in the cold. Sitting up, she wiped her eyes free of tears and held the covers to her chin as her breathing calmed down. '_That dream again,_' She closed her eyes and shook her head, wanting to rid herself of the images rather than try and figure them out at the moment. Opening them up again, she looked down at Syaoran next to her. His eyes were closed lightly, breathing steadily.

Lying back down on the bed, Sakura brought the covers up over them again. She looked at the boy in front of her a moment before giving into her own uneasiness and moving forward, wrapping an arm around him in an attempt to give herself some comfort. The motion made the boy yawn and stretch lightly, scaring Sakura slightly. When the instinctive motion was complete, Syaoran brought an arm around her and lazily embraced her. The girl was pulled close and found herself pressed against his chest. She accepted the motion eagerly and sighed out in relief when her fears left her.

'_This is nice,_' her mind realized, feeling his breath tickle the top of her hair. '_This is the first time we've embraced in bed like this…_' Sakura's mind flashed back to what Tomoyo had told her earlier. A soft blush came to her cheeks as she recalled hearing how she had seduced her friend after confessing that she still loved him after so long. Using her free hand not wrapped around him she placed her palm against his chest. Leaving it there for a moment, she let her mind wonder on what it would be like to have such an intimate relationship with someone. '_Calm down there, Sakura,_' she scolded herself. '_You don't even have him as your boyfriend yet and you're already thinking that? Since when did I become the pervert?_' The thought made her smile to herself as she cuddled up against him, the dream now forgotten. In the silent room in the dark Sakura found out that if she held onto him just right, and was still enough, she could hear his heartbeat.

* * *

Syaoran sighed as he slid the key into the lock of his door. Touya had given him hell all morning while Sakura took her shower and he was surprised that he got away without a scuffle from the over protective brother. Upon entering, the keys dropped from his hands. His living room was scattered with shredded pieces of magazines and his kitchen garbage was dragged out all over the place. In the middle of it all, the small gray kitten was curled up on the dining room table on a little bed of shredded paper. Growling, Syaoran ran forward and lunged onto the table, grabbing the animal. "Got you! Out you go you little…" His hands loosened up when the kitten didn't move. "Hey…What's wrong?" the words left his mouth before he even thought about the fact that he couldn't answer back anyway. Leaning forward he looked at the kitten, who barely had its eyes open. The animal gave him a weak sound before closing its eyes again and weakly letting its head rest on his hands. "Aw man… don't die on me little guy." Syaoran gave him a glance over to look for wounds before jogging back to the door and scooping down to grab his keys before closing it behind him and heading to a vet.

* * *

Author's notes: Sorry for the long delay in updating, I'll try and get more out as soon as possible

Fun facts:

"Kaze"(kah-zay) means "Wind". Sakura named the kitten because of it's messy wind blown hair. Normally I dissaprove of random Japanese words/names but for some reason I'm letting this one slide. He was originally supposed to make his appearance in chapter two, but got pushed back.

The chapter titles of this fanfic are the lyrics from the song by the same name.

This fanfic was originally intended to only be three or four chapters long, but I wrote alot of filler that doesn't really progress the story and decided to leave it in anyway, if not just for cute moments between the couplings.

The song Tomoyo was lip-syncing in her commercial shoot in chapter 3 was "Cosmic Dare (Pretty with a Pistol)" from the Cowboy Beebop soundtrack.

"Bandit" Keith, the transfer student who hounds Sakura, is a small tribute to Little Kuriboh ...In America! (He was also originally named "Joe")


End file.
